Elizabeth Perkins Prothro is an alumna and benefactor of SMU whose dedication to education grows out of a lifetime of active commitment to the United Methodist Church. The daughter of Joe and Lois Perkins, she honors her parents by supporting the institution in which they played an instrumental role, The Perkins School of Theology. A student of church and Biblical history, Mrs. Prothro has followed the dictate of the Reformers and John Wesley by going "ad fontes"- to the sources. She has amassed a scholarly collection of Biblical texts focusing on that preeminent period of Biblical criticism, the sixteenth century, and on her particular love, English-language Bibles, and she has placed this collection in our Bridwell Library. Mrs. Prothro has also been an interpreter of the sources through her own work on early Texas Methodism and the history of Bible printing. For her contributions to Texas church history, to Methodism, and to the study of the Bible, SMU is pleased to award Elizabeth Perkins Prothro the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa.