Earlier this year, the University of Utah Board of Trustees announced that Linda C. Smith would receive an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts. These degrees are awarded to individuals who have achieved distinction in academic pursuits, the arts, professions, business, government, civic affairs or in service to the university.
Chair of the Board of Trustees Honors Committee Jamie Sorenson noted that, “this year’s honorary degree recipients personify selfless service in higher education, passionate advocacy, life-changing innovations and artistic creativity.”
A lifelong Utahn, Linda C. Smith began her life in dance at the age of four in the Virginia Tanner Dance Program, where she went on to perform and tour nationally with The Children’s Dance Theater. Years later she became one of the first graduates of the University of Utah’s new fine arts-based dance program, and shortly after that, she was one of eight recent graduates invited back to the U to realize the dream of creating a professional Utah-based modern dance company, the first of its kind, using seed grant funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, which would become Repertory Dance Theater (RDT). In 1983, she became RDT’s Artistic Director and later, the Executive Director of the company, where she remains to this day as the organization is about to celebrate its 60th anniversary.
Photos courtesy of Repertory Dance Theatre
Smith received her Doctor of Fine Arts at the U’s General Commencement ceremony at the Jon M. Huntsman Center on May 1, 2025 and was also honored at the College of Fine Arts Convocation in Kingsbury Hall on May 2, 2025. Also receiving their honorary degrees this year alongside Smith were I. King Jordan (Doctor of Education), Julie A. Lassonde (Doctor of Engineering), and Cecil O. Samuelson Jr. (Doctor of Science).
“Honorary degrees are a recognition of exceptional human beings who have transformed the world in ways large and small,” said University of Utah President Taylor Randall. “We are so fortunate to have exceptional leaders who… have changed individual lives, bolstered education and advanced culture.”