2023 Hamilton College Honorary Degree

Presented to Evan Andrew Smith ’87

In 2010, after Hamilton announced its decision to become need-blind in admission, you wrote: “I was a financial aid student who never could have afforded to go to Hamilton had it not been for the College’s generosity, and those four years absolutely changed my life.”

One of those changes included a shift in interest from politics to journalism after interning with a congressman in Washington, D.C. “I found it repellent,” you told the Dallas Morning News. “It was a numbing grind.”

You returned to Hamilton, accepted an offer to write for the student newspaper, and discovered a new passion that would shape your career and ultimately reshape the profession you’ve served for more than three decades.

Armed with your Hamilton diploma and a master’s degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, you arrived in 1992 at the Texas Monthly, the self-described “national magazine of Texas,” where you spent nearly 18 years, ultimately serving as president and editor-in-chief. During your tenure, the Texas Monthly won two National Magazine Awards for general excellence.

In 2009, you launched the nonprofit, nonpartisan Texas Tribune news organization with venture capitalist John Thornton and fellow journalist and media entrepreneur Ross Ramsey. It was, you said in your final column last December, “not about journalism,” but “about motivating civic participation,” and “about creating more thoughtful and productive citizens. ... [It] was about democracy.”

Owing to your work at The Texas Tribune, which has won wide acclaim including 25 national Edward R. Murrow Awards, you’ve been called a “a true pioneer,” “a promotional force of nature,” “an innovator, a ringleader and a fearlessly ambitious local news entrepreneur.”

We proudly call you a liberally educated changemaker and are pleased to recognize you today with this honorary degree.
 

David Wippman
President
May 21, 2023