Tilman Fertitta To Be Honored By the University of Houston In His December Return From Italy — a PaperCity Exclusive
Becoming Doctor Fertitta Represents UH's Biggest Honor
BY Chris Baldwin //
Billionaire believer Tilman Fertitta and UH president Renu Khator work closely together. Now Fertitta is set to receive the ultimate University of Houston honor on December 18. (Photo by F. Carter Smith)
The University of Houston plans to honor Tilman Fertitta in a special ceremony on December 18, with Fertitta coming back from Italy to attend, PaperCity has learned. Fertitta will be receiving an honorary doctorate from the university he loves and powered into the Big 12.
“An honorary doctorate is the most prestigious, biggest honor that the university can bestow upon someone,” UH chancellor and president Renu Khator tells PaperCity. “It’s a faculty-driven process and the faculty realized how much Chairman Fertitta has done for the university. And we were just very honored that he accepted to receive the degree.
“And we look forward to having him here at the graduation on December 18th.”
Fertitta and his family will be coming back to Houston from Italy, where he’s serving as the United States Ambassador to Italy and San Marino, for his graduation ceremony and the holidays. Getting an honorary doctorate from his university of choice represents a beyond meaningful moment for the Houston billionaire who seemingly has it all.
“It means a lot,” Tilman Fertitta tells PaperCity in a call from Italy. “It also means a lot when I gave up my regent board chair, they did something that they never did before and I’m still the honorary chairman.”
Fertitta served as the chairman of the University of Houston System Board of Regents from 2014 to 2025, only stepping down so he could take the ambassadorship from President Donald Trump and serve his country. He is now the first Board of Regents Honorary Chairman in UH history. Businessman and oil leader Jack Moore is the current Board of Regents Chairman.
Fertitta’s impact on the University of Houston has been immense. He donated $50 million to get University of Houston’s own medical school rolling in 2022 and his $20 million gift made the Fertitta Center, the program-changing arena for Kelvin Sampson’s beyond nationally elite college basketball program, possible. But his greatest contribution is arguably how he refused to let his school be left behind in Big 12 expansion.
Houston’s most influential believer will be returning with Willie Fritz’s football team having gone 9-3 in the coach’s second season, earning a bowl game invite that could get the Cougars a high-profile game in Texas (the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio on December 30 and the Texas Bowl at NRG Stadium on December 27 are both in play). He comes back with Kelvin Sampson’s basketball team in its customary spot in the Top 10.
This is what Tilman Fertitta and Renu Khator envisioned together in many ways. As they still work to help the University of Houston make further strides forward.
“He’s still very much involved,” Khator says of Fertitta. “He’s now also an honorary chairman too. But he’s involved (like) an alum, as a person whose name is on our buildings. Somebody that’s very much vested his entire family in UH.”
It will be a family moment when Tilman Fertitta returns to receive his doctorate too.