Kelly Damphousse Criminal Justice Endowed Scholarship

The Kelly Damphousse Criminal Justice Scholarship Endowment was established by Kelly and Beth Damphousse of San Marcos, TX. Kelly Damphousse was raised in a small fishing village in northern Canada. He moved to southern Alberta in Grade 12, where he later earned an associate’s degree in law enforcement from Lethbridge Community College. After three years of being a prison guard he became a Royal Canadian Mounted Police Officer, which inspired him to head south to Texas to complete a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice at Sam Houston State. After he completed his bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Sam Houston State, he and Beth were married in her hometown of Bryan, Texas. She encouraged him to enter graduate school, and he eventually earned a master’s degree and Ph.D. in sociology from Texas A&M University. Kelly began his academic career as an assistant professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (1994-1995) and then at Sam Houston State University (1995-1997), before joining the University of Oklahoma faculty (1997-2017). He is an accomplished scholar, having earned the title of Presidential Professor of Sociology at the University of Oklahoma based on his extensive research on terrorism, substance abuse, and the criminal justice system. He served as Associate Dean in OU’s College of Arts and Sciences for nine years, and for four years as dean. Beth (Smith) Damphousse was born in Stillwater, Oklahoma but grew up in Bryan, Texas (her father was a professor in the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences at Texas A&M University). She attended Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, TX, and earned a degree in Music Education (voice) in 1988. While there, she was active in the Baptist Student Union, played piano at Second Baptist Church, and taught piano lessons. She also met a Canadian boy named Kelly who would later become her husband.