“You deserve a medal!” In 1984, then-UC Irvine Chancellor Jack W. Peltason applied the approbation literally when he established the UC Irvine Medal to recognize those who significantly boost the university’s mission through their dedication and generosity. This year, on the occasion of the campus’s 60th anniversary, seven individuals will join the previous 119 awardees.
Founding Chancellor Daniel G. Aldrich Jr. received that first UC Irvine Medal. Since then, additional recipients have included President Barack Obama, Nobel laureate F. Sherwood Rowland, former California Gov. Edmund G. (Pat) Brown, dance innovator and founding faculty member Donald McKayle, and donors such as Henry and Susan Samueli and the Chao family. Pulitzer Prize winners, authors, inventors, industry leaders, scientists and innovators in myriad fields are among those feted.
A one-time special edition of the medal called the Founders Award was bestowed in 1990, recognizing Joan Irvine Smith, who was instrumental in facilitating the Irvine Company’s $1 sale of land to the University of California system, and Jean Aldrich, wife of the founding chancellor, among others.
Michael Drake, the campus’s fifth chancellor, serving from 2005 to 2014, and his wife, Brenda Drake, were the most recent honorees, receiving the medal in 2017. During their tenure, UC Irvine rose to one of the top 10 national public universities in U.S. News & World Report’s annual ranking.
The UC Irvine Medals are overseen by the UC Irvine Foundation, and recognition is awarded in lieu of honorary degrees.
Southern California sculptor Margaret Inez Owings designed the front side of the medallion. It reflects the circular campus plan, depicting Langson Library backlit by a rising sun, symbolizing light and learning. The verso of the medal features the official UC seal (designed by Tiffany & Co. in 1895) and its motto “Let There Be Light.”
“This year’s recipients join the pantheon of those who have made exceptional and enduring contributions to our mission of teaching, research and public service,” says Chancellor Howard Gillman. “We are honored by their participation in the life of this university.”
It’s easy to see why alumni Jo and Paul Butterworth have a soft spot for UC Irvine. Paul Butterworth earned a bachelor’s degree here in 1974 and a master’s in 1981 in computer science. Jo Butterworth graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the School of Social Sciences in 1975.
The campus provided the education and eventual business contacts that formed the foundation for their six tech startups over the last 45 years. Maybe more importantly, mutual friends in their Langson Library work-study program introduced them to each other, facilitating a long and happy marriage.
So when it came to devising an estate plan, “both Jo and I had a similar feeling about it,” says Paul Butterworth. “Everything we’ve done started at UCI. We were lucky and had some success, and it feels right to pass that along to others.”
In February, they made a $35.5 million estate gift to UC Irvine – the largest alumni bequest ever. It will fund student and faculty awards, scholarships, fellowships, new research initiatives and faculty chairs in the Donald Bren School of Information & Computer Sciences.
In addition to the couple’s philanthropy, Paul Butterworth volunteers as a member of the UC Irvine Foundation board of trustees and serves on the Dean’s Leadership Council for the ICS school.
Co-founder and chief technology officer of enterprise software developer Vantiq Inc., he also co-founded cloud platform development company Emotive Communications and service-oriented architecture management firm AmberPoint, acquired by Oracle in 2010. Paul Butterworth was co-founder and senior vice president of Forte Software, bought by Sun Microsystems in 1999, as well.
His advice to other alumni: “I couldn’t have attended UCI without financial help, so I like being able to contribute to future generations. They’re the ones who will make the world go ’round. To anyone who feels like UCI has helped them, help the future.”
Julie Hill doesn’t let closed doors or what she calls “specious barriers” get in her way. So years ago, when an “old boys’ network” functioning as a corporate board made golf a hiring prerequisite, she learned the game in six months.
“I still play golf,” she says, “but not well.”
Hill’s commitment to opening doors and eliminating barriers led her to chair the UC Irvine Foundation in 2017, a position she held for six years. Her business experience in marketing, home building, healthcare and finance helped her develop strategies for uniting her fellow trustees in promoting the campus.
“The deans are our product – the ones generating the knowledge. Understanding their work is critical to better community connections.”
“There had been few opportunities for trustees to get to know the deans,” Hill says. “Using the vernacular of business, the deans are our product – the ones generating the knowledge. Understanding their work is critical to better community connections.”
Two hallmarks of her tenure were facilitating access and upward mobility for first-generation students and helping to foster interdisciplinary studies. Under Hill’s leadership, the UC Irvine Foundation also established the UCI-OC Alliance, which paves new educational pathways for historically underrepresented students. She remains passionate about preventing domestic violence and supports the campus’s Interdisciplinary Center on Family Violence.
A former president and CEO of the U.S. division of a large U.K.-listed company, Hill went on to establish her own land development business. She has served on numerous public and private corporate boards of directors globally, often as the first woman. Her recipe for success: Show up, pay attention, tell the truth and don’t be too attached to the outcome.
With his tasteful Anteater tie and a pocketful of Anteater lapel pins at hand, Goran Matijasevic, M.S. ’85, Ph.D. ’91 (engineering), is one of UC Irvine’s best boosters. The senior assistant vice chancellor for alumni and constituent relations circulates effortlessly among engineers and dancers, technology innovators and undergraduates, evangelizing for the campus.
Name an organization that reaches into the community on the campus’s behalf and Goran, as he is widely known on campus (like Cher or Plato, he needs only one name), has probably been involved with it.
As executive director of UC Irvine’s Chief Executive Roundtable, he helps foster strategic research collaborations externally and across campus disciplines. The UC Irvine Alumni Association taps him for alumni engagement, and the UCI-OC Alliance turns to him for community outreach and connections.
He serves on the Graduate Division Dean’s Leadership Council and the Calit2 Division Council. Off campus, he sits on the boards of innovation accelerators Octane and SoCalBio.
“I’m sometimes asked, ‘Why are you in this role when, with your experience, you could be a researcher yourself?’” Matijasevic says. “But I really enjoy translating the research and identifying opportunities for connections with industry.”
An enthusiastic supporter of the Claire Trevor School of the Arts, he attended 65 UC Irvine arts events during the last academic year. Matijasevic has funded four graduate student scholarships – two in honor of late colleagues in engineering and math and two in dance in the name of his late wife and himself. Their first date was a UC Irvine dance recital.
Additionally, he received a Lauds & Laurels award as Distinguished Engineering Alumnus (2008) and Lauds & Laurels’ Outstanding Staff Achievement Award (2017).
Matijasevic encourages fellow alumni to help spread the UCI spirit beyond campus: “We continue to be a hidden gem to the community outside, but the ‘Zot! Force’ is slowly coming into its own.”
“If you want to change the world, you need to be affiliated with a university.”
Sheila and Jimmy Peterson say they remember that advice from fellow UC Irvine supporter Susan Samueli more than 20 years ago. That’s one reason they agreed to chair the just-completed $2 billion Brilliant Future campaign, which exceeded fundraising and alumni engagement goals.
Another motivation for accepting the six-year commitment was more personal. “UCI saved my life,” says Jimmy Peterson, retired CEO of Microsemi Corp.
In 2017, he checked into UCI Health’s Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center with Stage 4 melanoma. Today he’s cancer-free.
While the Petersons are receiving the 2025 UC Irvine Medal for their service, they humbly assign credit for the Brilliant Future campaign’s success to University Advancement leadership and staff. Still, they take ownership of some pride points. Starting the fundraising effort just as the COVID-19 pandemic hit presented a major challenge.
“We blew through it as if it wasn’t there,” Jimmy Peterson says. “And I’m also very proud that 70 percent of the gifts were under $100 and 80 percent were from first-time donors. The community really stepped up.”
Philanthropy has long played a role in the San Juan Capistrano couple’s lives. “We both worked in the semiconductor industry,” says Sheila Peterson. “That and our seven kids were all-consuming. But while we were making some money, we always gave back. We were raised that way.”
They will leave future campaigns to other chairs, but the UC Irvine Foundation trustees still have goals for the campus. They value the dedication to interdisciplinary research and education and want to see that thrive. And they aren’t finished encouraging support from Anteater alumni.
“Many who came to UCI may have been given a hand up,” says Jimmy Peterson. “They should be willing to give back with their hearts, minds and wallets.”
“We always gave back. We were raised that way.”
From gallery walls to hospital halls, James Irvine Swinden’s gift to UC Irvine celebrates the beauty of California and promotes interdisciplinary research.
In 2016, he facilitated the transfer of 1,300 paintings from The Irvine Museum Collection to the newly formed UC Irvine Institute and Museum of California Art. In addition, he donated 280 reproductions of art from the museum that now hang in the hospital, nursing school, medical school, law school and administrative offices.
“The medical and nursing professions have become increasingly interested in how art affects the recovery of patients,” says Swinden, president of The Irvine Museum. “And I am interested from the standpoint of how we can use art to enable improved care for patients by developing better observation skills. Eventually, I would like to see all the schools involved with the art.”
An attorney, he and his mother, Joan Irvine Smith, made a lead gift to the School of Law, fulfilling a long-held dream of his grandmother, Athalie R. Clarke.
Swinden is a UC Irvine Foundation trustee and serves on the Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing Dean’s Cabinet and the law school’s Board of Visitors. In addition, he chairs The Irvine Museum Collection at what’s now called the Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Museum of California Art.
In 1997, the UC Irvine Alumni Association honored him with its Lauds & Laurels award for being an Outstanding Community Friend.
The Irvine family’s roots run deep at UCI: Swinden’s mother and grandmother were instrumental in the founding of the campus. Clarke was awarded the UC Irvine Medal in 1987, and Irvine Smith received the same award in 1990.
Read more stories of award winners and check back for event information on the next Lauds & Laurels event, hosted on the UC Irvine campus each fall.
