of flexibility to curriculum requirements. Post-Air Force McDermott wrote books on finance for service personnel, which attracted the attention of USAA president Charles Cheever and in 1968, McDermott retired from the Air Force to join USAA and become its chief executive officer. Under his leadership, USAA grew from the 16th to the 5th largest insurer of private automobiles in the nation and the nation's 4th largest homeowner insurer. A Washington Post obituary explained: In September 1993 he assumed the position of chairman emeritus. McDermott also played a significant role in the community of San Antonio, Texas. In 1974, he was elected chairman of the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce. In 1975, he founded the Economic Development Foundation and served as its chairman until 1980. In the 1980s, he focused on the developing of biotechnology in San Antonio, and founded the Texas Research and Technology Foundation which began development of the Texas Research Park. In the mid-1990s he was chairman of an investor group that purchased the San Antonio Spurs basketball team for $85 million. Awards and recognition Testaments to his lifelong interests in education include an elementary school and a Clinical Science Building at the University of Texas Health Science Center which bear his name. A grateful community designated a section of Interstate 10 in Texas running through San Antonio between I-35 outside of Downtown to Loop 1604 as the Robert F. McDermott Freeway in recognition of his many initiatives as a pioneer civic entrepreneur, both in education and economic development. Academic chairs in his honor have been established at the United States Air Force Academy and the United States Military Academy, and the library at the Air Force Academy also bears his name. For his leadership in business, he was selected to the Texas Business Hall of Fame in 1987 and the American National Business Hall of Fame in 1989. In 1993, West Point selected him to receive its Distinguished Graduate Award. In 1994 Fortune selected him as Laureate in Junior Achievement's National Business Hall of Fame. In 1996, the International Insurance Society inducted him into the Insurance Hall of Fame. In 1998, he was awarded the Harvard Business School's highest honor, the Alumni Achievement Award, as a tribute to his accomplishments at the Air Force Academy and USAA. He received the Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement in June 1999. His Golden Plate was