The University of Florida has awarded the late, great Tom Petty an honorary Ph.D. The Associated Press reported, “The school’s board of trustees unanimously voted to award Thomas Earl Petty a posthumous doctoral degree in music during a Friday meeting (December 3rd). Born and raised in Gainesville, Petty once worked as a groundskeeper at UF as he tried to make it in the music industry, but he was never enrolled.” There's been no word as to whether there will be special ceremony for the Petty family to be awarded the posthumous honor.
Tom Petty died on October 2nd, 2017 of an accidental overdose at age 66. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner stated the cause of death to be “multisystem organ failure due to resuscitated cardiopulmonary arrest due to mixed drug toxicity.”
Not long before his death, Tom Petty admitted it took a while for him to fully appreciate the awards and accolades that came his way over the years: “I think when you get to my age, you kinda have a different view of them. Y'know, when I was younger, I didn't really put much stock in them, or pay much attention to it. And then as you get older, you kinda go — or you've been doin' it a long time — you go, 'Oh, that was kinda nice, y'know, that someone noticed that we've been around a while doin' good work.'”