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O’Donnell was born near Dallas in 1924. He received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of the South at Sewanee, Tennessee, followed by an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.
Upon graduation, his early career led him into the world of trading, where he found financial success in the securities industry.
O’Donnell’s formidable intellect and business acumen naturally took him into politics, where he is credited with reshaping the Texas Republican Party during his tenure as chairman of the state party from 1962 to 1969.
In their early 30s, he and Edith formed the O’Donnell Foundation, a philanthropic organization focused on supporting higher education in Texas that became the fifth largest independent Texas foundation. Over the years, they donated hundreds of millions of dollars, mostly anonymously, to public and private educational institutions.
The O’Donnell Foundation focused on four areas: math; Science and engineering education; Medicine, art and music education; and K-12 training.
Edith O’Donnell studied psychology at UT Austin. While the two had an impact on higher education in Texas, they had a special connection with the Forty Acres.
The O’Donnell Foundation and the O’Donnell family are among the largest donors to UT Austin. Their support included a Challenge Grant that created 32 million dollar chairs in science and engineering at UT Austin. In 2013, in recognition of its longstanding support, the university announced the designation of the O’Donnell Building for Applied Computational Engineering and Sciences.
The Oden Institute and TACC
Peter O’Donnell had a long friendship with J. Tinsley Oden, professor of mathematics, computer science, mechanical and aerospace engineering and engineering mechanics at UT Austin, who is widely regarded as the father of computer mechanics.
O’Donnell saw the importance of high performance computing (HPC) and computational science in higher education and found a partner in Oden with expertise in math, science and technology to do both at UT. to make Austin known.
O’Donnell and Oden worked closely in 2002 to create the Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences, now known as the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering & Sciences, recognized as one of the leading computer research institutes in the world.
Thanks to the steadfast generosity of the O’Donnells, Oden was able to recruit some of the most talented computer scientists in the field and build a team that could not only expand the mathematical agility of computer science and engineering as a discipline, but also grow the number of possible real-world applications.
O’Donnell also helped UT Austin advance in HPC. In 1985, he encouraged university officials to purchase the powerful CRAY X-MP system, making UT Austin the first university in Texas to have a supercomputer. This led to the establishment of a dedicated advanced computing center, the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC), in 2001.
Encouraged, the foundation gave generous support to TACC, which now operates two of the most powerful university supercomputers in the world: Frontera and Stampede2. O’Donnell noted, “It’s leverage. High performance computing changes everything.”
O’Donnell renewed his commitment to TACC and the advancement of data-driven science in 2012 by supporting the acquisition of high-performance data analytics and storage systems – efforts that helped UT Austin become a leader in data science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence . The foundation also contributed to the construction of the Advanced Computing Building, which houses the majority of TACC’s employees.
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