There’s an absolute resilience in Cynt Marshall‘s DNA makeup that is simply contagious. That was shown again on Monday, April 14, at SMU’s J. Erik Jonsson Ethics Award Luncheon benefiting the Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility.
With the event taking place at Armstrong Fieldhouse‘s practice field, the former Mavs CEO/President was proving the point at the VIP reception as she greeted everyone from Shonn Brown, Carol and David Glendenning, Serita and T.D. Jakes and Matrice Ellis Kirk to Terry Flowers, Tracey Nash-Huntley, Laura Harris and Patrick Means, Ken Malcolmson, Gail and Gerald Turner and a host of others.
There was absolutely no traditional greeting and shake of the hand. That’s not how Cynt is.
She had the most remarkable ability of turning the tables on the guests. She greeted each one as if they were the honoree of the day. It was arms splayed in the air as if celebrating a favorite, long-lost cousin, or embarrassing another as if she would have been lost without their being there. In other words, there was nary a stranger in the mix.
As the chimes peeled calling the guests to the lunch, the crowd was a mix of staffers from the Mavs, AT&T, Texas Women’s Foundation and Dallas CASA filling the tables in the Miller Boulevard Ballroom.
But unlike years past, when the event was cordial and featured a calm talk or chat with a moderator, in typical Cynt fashion she served up her recipe of deprecating humor followed by common-sense lessons of how to proceed.
Before she took the podium, though, there was a lineup of speakers like SMU VP For Development and External Affairs Brad Cheves kicking off the program, followed by the Project Unite Choir under the direction of Dr. Clark Joseph, once again performing to cellphone salutes.
After SMU Trustee Bobby Lyle took his place on stage to recognize VIPs in the room, including the Cary Maguire family, past recipients and members of the SMU board and staff, T.D. Jakes provided the invocation.
Following a break for the meal to be served, SMU President Gerald Turner, Maguire Center’s William F. May Endowed Director Rita Kirk and Cynt took their places in chairs on the stage with NBC5 anchor Laura Harris serving as emcee and introducing Rita to speak to the group.
Following years past when also she told a story about the need for ethics, Rita told the guests of a village nestled between majestic mountains and the vast sea where four friends grew up “sharing dreams together in their hearts, united with one profound desire to live a life of moral fulfillment.” Then one day as they had reached adulthood, they gathered at a village crossroads and shared their hopes. Each had decided on a different path to pursue what they felt was important. Twenty years later the four had reunited, learning that each had experienced much more than they expected.
The lesson learned was that while they had each taken a different path, each had contributed something essential to the moral fabric of the world, resulting in a tapestry of goodness and beauty. Just as each person is guided in a direction of their own choosing, “ethics is a type of compass that helps us understand the different directions our choices might take us and the landscapes those directions will reveal. At SMU, we don’t tell students what to think. We don’t tell them which moral path is correct. Instead, we try to give them the tools to recognize the ethical dimensions of complex situations, to understand that their choices have consequences, and that different paths will lead to different outcomes, but in all choices, they must move forward with awareness, integrity and purpose.”
A gift for the day’s guests was a compass in honor of Cynt.
Following a video featuring people from all walks of life extolling Cynt, NBC 5 Today co-anchor Laura Harris took her place at the podium, adding her own accolades of the day’s honoree and inviting Cynt to the stage to receive the award presented by Rita and Gerald as the entire room of people stood applauding.
Right out of the box, Cynt turned the tables on the hosts, thanking all for the event and professing astonishment at all the comments throughout the day. “I told Bobby Lyle it’s like when you’re having a funeral, but you get to hear it.” She recalled that “I was stunned when Bobby Lyle rolled up to the Mavs office to so graciously deliver the news about the award. Now I usually don’t like it when people roll up on me at work.”
Other highlights of her acceptance speech included:
“I am in this incredible award season right now. It’s actually a tad embarrassing. It’s kind of like if you get that invitation for someone’s second, third or fourth wedding. I know my husband won’t go. He said, ‘I’m not going. I went once and didn’t get my gift back.’ Because he’s like, ‘How many times do we have to keep going?” So that’s how some of y’all feel. I’m glad you showed up for this one because this particular award means everything to me.”
“Just to be on the same list with some of my friends, Ashlee and Chris Kleinert, Peter Brodsky, Bobby Lyle, Dr. Michael Sorrell … I could go on and on. Let’s give it up for all the previous ones on the list.”
“I don’t believe it’s a coincidence that I’m standing before you with a microphone during what many of us observe as Holy Week, a time for us to reflect on sacrifice, salvation and service. It’s a week to think about what are we willing to sacrifice? We know an ultimate sacrifice was made, but what are we willing to sacrifice? What needs to be saved and who needs to be served? Look at your neighbor, because you know that’s what I do. Y’all know I grew up in the Pentecostal Church.
She told the guests to look at their neighbor and repeat, “Neighbor, you’ve been chosen for such a time as this.” So let me give you just three ways that I think caring and generous community has been chosen — chosen to stand up; chosen to sit in; and chosen to lie down.
- Chosen to stand up — “All of us are chosen to stand up for someone else. We are beyond the days of minding our own business. Look at your neighbor. Don’t mind your own business. We must stand up for what’s right. There is a difference between doing things right and doing the right thing. The SMU code of ethics in part reads, ‘We owe it to the public, to our common heritage and to one another, to uphold certain basic values. These values include but are not limited to the pursuit of truth, integrity in work and respect for persons.’ When my son, Kenneth Anthony, was in elementary school … you all know Anthony, called ‘The Prince’ … When The Prince was in elementary school, I received a rare call from his school. I’d never got a call about him. When my daughter started school, they called me five times in the first week. We never got a call about Anthony. But they were calling to tell me that he was in the principal’s office because he jumped in the middle of a fight to stop the fight and caught a fist that bloodied his nose. By their own accounts, they described him as a little hero. So I’m trying to figure out, so why is my boy in the principal’s office if he’s a little hero? Once I made it to the school because, you know, mama had to leave immediately, I realized that Anthony was crying because he knew he had unjustly ended up in a place that was forbidden by his parents. I always told my kids, you need to know the classroom, the nurse’s office and the recess yard, that’s it. No principal. So our son told them to call. He was crying hysterically and gasping for air as he explained to me that he had to break up that fight because the big guy was hurting the little guy. I was traumatized by it too, okay. He assured me that everything was okay and everybody was okay, but he was upset because he was in the principal’s office. Later, he got recognized with a hero certificate. Anthony didn’t jump into that situation for recognition. He just instinctively did what he felt was the right thing to do. Despite our constant admonishment to our children to mind their own business, he chose to stand up for his little friend. All of us are chosen to stand up for someone else. We are beyond the days of minding our own business. Look at your neighbor. Don’t mind your own business.”
- Chosen to sit — “On February 1, 1964, young men sat at a Woolworths lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina. We know the story sitting down was a bold act, but sitting in and refusing to leave until justice was served was the true act of courage. So in 2025 while some are playing musical chairs … Y’all know the game musical chairs. Raise your hand if you know musical chairs … Okay, while some are playing musical chairs, literally taking chairs away from the table and leaving people standing, we must keep the music playing and bring more chairs to the table. Are you willing to sit in … not just sit down, but to sit in and refuse to get up until the right thing is done? Are you willing to sit at the table for as long as necessary to ensure that the music keeps playing until everyone gets a chance to dance? We are chosen.”
- Chosen to lie down — “I saw something on Instagram, actually just a few days ago, where a woman had been frantically looking for her mother for 66 days. The video started at the point where she was describing her mother to all of these people in a park. And you could tell some may be homeless. Who knows, right? The people in the park affectionately referred to her mother as the Silver Fox. They said, ‘Oh, the way you describe it, you’re looking for the Silver Fox,’ and they point to a park bench. The woman found her mother lying on the bench, actually in pretty bad shape. The caption said she found her mother half dead. Drug addiction had clearly taken a toll on this elderly woman, a sweet woman, visibly beaten down by life with matted gray hair. Thus the name Silver Fox. Are we willing to not only find the Silver Foxes of the world, but also lie down with them? Are we willing to be like the friends in the park and stretch out on that bench and get to know these people and hear their stories? Are we willing to lie down with them so that we can better serve them? I actually know the answer to that from looking around this room, from being a member of this wonderful Metroplex community, and from doing life with so many of you every day. In this room, the answer is ‘Yes.’ I am looking at people who are not just willing, but who do this every day. Our challenge now is to get others to lie down and meet people where they are. We have other [39:07] rooms to influence in order to save and serve the Silver Fox, her children and her grandchildren.”
“I recently found this little box that says ‘Ethics in Action.’ It is almost 36 years old. It is from July 1989 and it contains about 60 different ethical scenarios. This box was given to me in July of 1989 in an Executive Leadership Program at AT&T. I was 29 years old. I was in my eighth year at AT&T. This box traveled with me from California, the San Francisco Bay Area to North Carolina to Dallas, Texas. It is a visible reminder for me of what I should represent as a leader. Thank you for telling me today that I do indeed represent what’s in this little box, ethics in action. Thank you for being a part of my journey and for being willing to stand up, sit in and lay down, just like me. You too have been chosen for such a time as this. Thank you for this incredible honor. God bless you.”
For more looks of the luncheon guests and the honoree, check out MySweetCharity Photo Gallery.
Paige McDaniel says
What an inspiring speech by an inspiring woman! Thank you, MSC for the wonderful report!