SMU awards Dallas man posthumous diploma weeks after he was killed by hit-and-run driver

As graduation season winds down, a family in North Texas finds a recently awarded degree to be bittersweet.

In May, Southern Methodist University posthumously granted a Master’s degree in Computer Science to Jason Brown, who was killed by a hit-and-run driver just weeks earlier.

“The person you love the most is gone, and there’s just nothing you can do about it except miss him,” said Tiffany Brown, Jason’s wife.

This degree should have marked the beginning of a new chapter for the Browns.

The couple, married for three years after a decade together, was looking forward to Jason’s graduation and the start of his new career.

But on April 8th, the 47-year-old went for a run near their North Dallas apartment and never returned.

“It kills me that someone just left him and didn’t care. There’s a void now. He’s gone and there’s nothing I can do,” said Tiffany.

Local news reports reveal the latest updates from North Texas.

According to a TXDOT crash report, Jason was on a sidewalk along Spring Valley Road near the corner of Montfort Drive when a red Volkswagen Jetta jumped the curb, struck him, and fled the scene.

More than two months later, his loved ones are still waiting for an arrest.

“I’d say some days are better than others,” said Jason’s sister, Mia Luna.

Luna said Jason was the happiest she’d ever seen him.

That day, he had celebrated with Tiffany and family, sharing their experiences of the solar eclipse via text.

In the coming days, he was to receive his degree and embark on a long-awaited career in cybersecurity.

“He struggled a lot when he was younger in high school and afterward. He had paranoid schizophrenia,” Luna said. “It took him a while, but he kept fighting. He would take one class here, another there. It never stopped him.”

His family was immensely proud.

So it was especially bittersweet when, a few weeks after his death, SMU’s Lyle School of Engineering posthumously awarded Jason his degree.

In a statement, SMU Vice President for Student Affairs K.C. Mmeje said:

“Jason was a strong student and so close to completing his degree requirements. Had it not been for his untimely death, he would have been celebrated among our graduates. The University and the Lyle School of Engineering were very supportive of conferring his degree posthumously. Considering the circumstances of his death, it was the least we could do to show his family he was a valued member of our community. Jason will always be a Mustang.”

“It was surreal,” said Tiffany. “A lot of the speeches were about the future and what to look forward to after all the hard work, and I couldn’t help but think he doesn’t get that.”

Though they will never know what his next chapter would have looked like, Brown and Luna are sharing his story as they await justice.

“I feel like Jason got what life was about—loving and not giving up,” said Tiffany.

They hope his story will inspire others to do the same.