Sabatini scholarship honors
parents' sacrifices for education

David and Frances Sabatini, seen here at engineering convocation ceremonies, established a scholarship to honor David's late parents.

David Sabatini has helped bring fresh water to remote communities in some of the poorest regions of the world. It’s a far cry from the farmland of rural Illinois where he grew up.

“My dad was a blue-collar laborer, and my mom did clerical work,” said Sabatini, a University of Oklahoma David Ross Boyd Professor and the Sun Oil Company Endowed Chair, who has taught in OU’s School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science for 32 years.

“It was really important to my parents that their boys go to college. It wasn’t even something that was discussed; it was just a given.”

Sabatini studied civil engineering at the University of Illinois. “College was daunting for me,” he admitted. “I was intimidated by the big university, and it was financially challenging. But my parents worked hard, I worked hard, and we put together the resources so I could get an education.”

He was only 25 and completing a master’s at the University of Memphis when his father died tragically in an accident. That was about the same time he met his wife, Frances, a Memphis native and schoolteacher. The two married and moved to Iowa State University, where David completed a Ph.D.

“My mother-in-law talked often about how proud they were of both boys,” Frances Sabatini said of David and his brother, Mike, who also went on to become a civil engineer. “They would be thrilled about the scholarship.”

Sabatini—who was inducted into the Oklahoma Higher Education Hall of Fame in 2021—noted that, like him, as much as 25% of OU’s current freshmen are first-

generation college students.

With such realities in mind, the Sabatinis honored his parents by establishing the Donna and Bill Sabatini Family Endowed Scholarship Fund at the OU Foundation. They’ve given $25,000 to endow the scholarship since his mother’s 2019 death. The fund benefits civil engineering students with an interest in water security for remote and emerging regions.

“Scholarships can be transformative for students,” said Randall Kolar, associate director of the WaTER (Water Technologies for Emerging Regions) Center and director of OU’s School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science. “Any scholarship makes it possible for students to start off their career with potential and unburdened by debt.

“Establishing a scholarship demonstrates the character of people like Dave, who realize they’ve benefitted from everything that OU has given them in terms of opportunities and a career.”

Sabatini’s own interest in water security began during OU international research projects. “I was traveling to parts of the world where infant mortality rates were one in seven for children dying before the age of 5,” he said. “I started thinking, ‘Is there something we can do to help address this challenge?’ ”

In 2006, Sabatini co-founded OU’s WaTER Center, which focuses on advancing health, education and economic development through sustainable water and sanitation solutions for impoverished areas. Alongside colleagues and students, Sabatini has traveled to more than a dozen countries in Africa, Asia and South America.

“My mother was very proud of what I did, though she wasn’t so excited about my going to some troubled parts of the world,” he said wryly.

“Up until her last year, she would say, ‘Can’t you convince Dave to stop going to all these places?’ ” Frances recalled. “I told her, ‘I understand what you mean, but I think about those mothers who are losing their small children or even their parents because of water contamination.

“Even if just one person is able to live as a result of the work that Dave and his OU students do, it’s worth the time that he’s gone.”