USD-Magazine-Summer-2023

BARBARA FERGUSON

The Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering Turns 10 [10th anniversary] A TIME FOR CELEBRATION A by Matthew Piechalak

tops custom-made for this event — the 10th anniversary celebration of the school that carries her family’s name. More students — and a few faculty members and staff — gather around the charismatic Shiley for an impromptu photoshoot. Following the repetitive click of several cameras, she hangs around to learn more about the current students and to offer her appreciation for their dedication to pursuing engineering degrees at USD. She also references

A group of smiling engineering students dressed uniformly in Torero Blue T-shirts gather below the entryway to Donald’s Garage, a workshop named after the late Donald P. Shiley, inventor of a revolutionary tilting disc artificial heart valve.

They are waiting to take a group photo with Donald’s wife, Darlene Marcos Shiley, the benefactress whose gift 10 years ago established the Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering at the University of San Diego. As she turns the corner into her self-proclaimed

“favorite space” inside the building, Shiley lights up at the sight of the young adults gathered in anticipation of her arrival. “‘Shiley-Marcos!’ Oh my, those shirts are sensational,” she cries out joyfully to the students, wearing their

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