St. Mark's Mourns Beloved Leader

It is with a deep sense of sadness that the St. Mark’s School of Texas community mourns the loss of one of its most beloved friends and benefactors, Mrs. Margaret Milam McDermott, who died today at the age of 106. Throughout her long and truly remarkable life, Margaret embodied generosity, kindness, intellectual prowess, and visionary leadership. She was a true Dallas icon who forever shaped the landscape of not only our School, but also our great city.

 

“Margaret McDermott’s legacy will endure forever at St. Mark’s. She is one of the great titans of our School,” said Eugene McDermott Headmaster David Dini. “It has been a rare privilege to get to know Margaret over the past several decades, an opportunity that I will always cherish. She has, quite simply, changed the course of history for St. Mark’s and more important, shaped the lives of literally thousands of students. On behalf of my colleagues as well as every Marksman, past, present, and future, we simply say, ‘thank you, Margaret, for enriching all of our lives. We will miss you dearly.’”

 

Margaret’s relationship with St. Mark’s began back in the 1940s during her husband’s ten-year run as Board of Trustees President from 1946-1956. In the 1960s they joined forces with good friends and fellow Texas Instruments co-founders, Cecil and Ida Green, to fund a state-of-the-art Math and Science Quadrangle, which gained national attention for its innovative and forward-looking capabilities that included closed-circuit television, a planetarium and observatory, a greenhouse, and much more. Soon after, the Eugene McDermott Scholarship Endowment was established, a fund that today supports need-based scholarship assistance for up to 20 St. Mark’s students each year. The McDermotts and Greens together went on to transform virtually every aspect of the School, endowing scholarships and teaching chairs, funding academic and co-curricular programs, and building new facilities all over the campus. These investments inspired students like Alan Stern ’75, principal investigator and team leader of NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto who said, “Looking back, St. Mark’s was very much about making a man out of a boy, and I felt that even in high school. I could feel I was on an escalator going somewhere.”

 

 

Margaret’s daughter Mary, who serves as President of the Eugene McDermott Foundation, is also a longtime friend to St. Mark’s, having served as a Trustee and generous supporter over many years. “Our hearts go out to Mary, her daughter Grace, and to all who are grieving, as we come to terms with the idea of life without Margaret,” continued Mr. Dini.

 

“The entire St. Mark’s community is saddened by the loss of Margaret McDermott,” said Jon Mosle ’79, President of the Board of Trustees. “We are profoundly grateful for her loyal friendship and support over the past seven decades. It is impossible to imagine St. Mark’s without the McDermotts, and their impact extends far beyond the buildings and generous endowment funds that bear their names. As a Life Trustee, Mrs. McDermott was a trusted adviser to the School’s leaders for decades, helping to shape the School’s core values. Like so many other institutions in Dallas and across the country, St. Mark’s owes an immeasurable debt of gratitude to Margaret.”