T. Boone Pickens Foundation

August 5, 2010

Forty of the richest men and women in the country — including Tulsa's George Kaiser and Oklahoma State University alum T. Boone Pickens — will donate at least half their wealth to charities, according to The Giving Pledge, a charitable organization of billionaires.
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FEBRUARY, 2010

T. Boone Pickens announces he’ll give another $100 million to his alma mater Oklahoma State University as part of a $1 billion fundraising campaign. The $100 million estate gift will fund a major endowment for scholarships, said Pickens, who has now given more than $500 million to OSU.
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NOVEMBER, 2009

Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert recently presented the UT Dallas Center for BrainHealth’s Legacy Award to T. Boone Pickens, recognizing the legendary energy investor’s generosity and foresight in his support of the center’s brain health research.
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SPOTLIGHT

Each month, the T. Boone Pickens Foundation focuses on grants to organizations that operate in its core giving categories (see “About TBPF”). The current partner spotlight is the Tulsa, Oklahoma-based American Association of Petroleum Geologists Foundation, established in 1967 with the primary goal of providing a source of funding for educational, charitable and scientific objectives, which directly and indirectly benefit the geologic profession and the general public.

AAPG Foundation - Pickens with 2009 Teacher of the Year Award winner, Ty Robinson, who teaches at Provo High School in Provo, Utah The Pickens Foundation has committed to a $9.4 million pledge for the development of a GIS digital geology consortium between AAPG and Oklahoma State University, the first consortium of its kind. The consortium is developing digital GIS products through OSU’s geology and geography department, and will make them available to professionals and the public via AAPG’s intranet database. The gift comprises $240,000 per year for 10 years, plus a gift of $7 million provided in Pickens’ will as a legal testament. It is one of the largest single bequeaths the AAPG Foundation has ever received.

“I was trained as a geologist, and have spent the lion’s share of my 81 years working in the industry,” Pickens says. “Supporting the AAPG Foundation seems a natural, as they reinforce one of the Pickens Foundation’s core areas, education.”

T. Boone Pickens receives the L. Austin Weeks Memorial medal from AAPG Foundation chairman Bill Fisher. The funds are providing operating capital for the Boone Pickens Digital Geology Fund to provide geologic, scientific and resource information to the general public via a map-based format researched and compiled through graduate geology students. The project also benefits students by providing industry-specific research projects published in industry-friendly formats, enhancing their skill set and boosting their desirability as graduates.

“Mr. Pickens has provided funds for a unique opportunity – to merge the prowess and talents of AAPG and OSU to build a new Petroleum Geoscience Consortium that will develop maps and data that will be seen around the world – perhaps even change the world,” AAPG Foundation executive director Rick Fritz says.

Foundation staff and AAPG Foundation executive director Rick Fritz with T. Boone Pickens after the AAPG 2009 All-Convention Luncheon in Denver. In 2009, the AAPG Foundation provided more than $1 million toward the advancement of education and outreach through programs such as the Grants-in-Aid program, Weeks Memorial Undergraduate grants, Distinguished Lecture Tours, a Visiting Geoscientists program, K-12 Resources and more. The Honors and Awards program provides a means for recognizing outstanding achievements and contributions by professional geologists, especially in the area of exploration for petroleum and energy mineral resources, and by other professionals who further the goals and objectives of its science, profession, and association. Pickens has received the L. Austin Weeks Memorial Medal, given in recognition for extraordinary philanthropy and service directed to advance the mission of the AAPG Foundation. The AAPG Foundation Teacher of the Year Program awards $5,000 to a K-12 teacher for Excellence in the Teaching of Natural Resources in the Earth Sciences. This National award includes $2,500 to the teacher’s school for the winning teacher’s use and $2,500 for the teacher’s personal use.

For more information about the AAPG Foundation, visit http://foundation.aapg.org.