Dr. David Daily, professor of religion, will provide the keynote address at the University of the Ozarks’ 2025 Fall Commencement ceremony, scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 20, in Munger-Wilson Chapel.
Approximately 25 graduating seniors are expected to take part in the ceremony. The ceremony will be livestreamed for those who cannot attend in-person.
Daily, who has taught at U of O since 2000, has announced his retirement at the conclusion of the Spring 2026 Semester.
A native of Arkadelphia, Ark., Daily earned his undergraduate degree at Ouachita Baptist University and his master of divinity degree from Yale University. He was awarded the Ph.D. in religion at Duke University, where he specialized in American religious history.
Daily has been named the recipient of the University of the Ozarks’ Richard and Katherene Bagwell Outstanding Faculty Award in 2004 and 2009 and received the Dr. Rick and Sheree Niece President’s Above and Beyond Service Award in 2013. He is also the author of the book, “Battle for the BIA: G.E.E. Lindquist and the Missionary Crusade Against John Collier.”
Daily is married to Teresa Wooten Daily, a pediatrician-turned-Episcopal priest, and they have two adult children, Emma and Wilson.
Topics: About