University of Southern Indiana

Joseph E. O'Daniel was a retired Evansville businessman who spent half a century working to ensure access to higher education for others. O'Daniel had to forfeit his own education when he left school at the age of 16 to help support his family, with nine brothers and sisters. Because of this experience he had a great reverence for education.

O'Daniel was the owner of a successful car dealer and on his way to becoming an Evansville business, civic, and political leader when he joined forces with former Mayor Frank F. McDonald, Sr., in lining up other community leaders in support of the development of public higher education in southwest Indiana. O'Daniel and the former mayor were among founding members of Southern Indiana Higher Education, Inc. (SIHE), a nonprofit organization incorporated to provide financial support for what they envisioned as a Mid-America Educational Center -- a "development park" for higher education. SIHE raised nearly a million dollars and put together a 1,400-acre tract of land to be used as the educational park, and gave the first 300 acres to Indiana State University, which had been persuaded to establish a regional branch campus in Evansville.

The group later spearheaded the effort to provide affordable, nearby housing for University students. O'Daniel personally supervised the financing, acquisition, and construction of this project for many years. The Mid-America Student Housing (MASH) complex opened in 1984. SIHE later acquired a nearby apartment complex and named it Campus Apartments. Ten years later, SIHE donated the complexes, valued at $14 million, to the University. That same year, student housing was renamed to honor O'Daniel and the senior Mayor McDonald.

O'Daniel was also a founding member and first president of the Indiana State University-Evansville Foundation, now the USI Foundation. Recognizing that state appropriations alone couldn't meet the new campus's needs, he helped organize fund drives, set up clubs for annual gifts, and managed the foundation's investment for nearly 10 years.

O'Daniel was appointed by the Indiana governor in 1984 to serve on the Board of Incorporators which conducted a six-month study of issues facing higher education in the region and reached a conclusion supporting separation from ISU for the Evansville campus. O'Daniel helped develop legislation that in 1985 made USI an autonomous state institution. O'Daniel was appointed to the original USI Board of Trustees and served for ten years, three of them as chairman.

Honors for his efforts have included the bestowal of an honorary Doctor of Laws degree at the first USI commencement in 1971 and being selected as the 1986 Volunteer of the Year in education by the national Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).

8600 University Boulevard - Evansville, IN 47712-3596 - 812/464-8600

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