Oklahoma State University (OSU) has announced gifts totaling $120 million from the Dallas-based T. Boone Pickens Foundation in support of student scholarships and the expansion of student athletic, health, and wellness facilities.

Established by Giving Pledge signatory and OSU alumnus T. Boone Pickens, who died in 2019, the foundation will provide $63.7 million—in line with a $100 million testamentary gift Pickens made in 2010—to bolster the university’s Pickens Legacy Scholarship Match program by doubling the impact of donor contributions and offering needs-based financial support for OSU students. Another $25 million will support the development of the university’s Human Performance Innovation Complex, an athletics village that will house the Human Performance and Nutrition Research Institute as well as training and operations facilities for the OSU Cowboys football team.

In addition, the gift includes the donation of Pickens’s personal and business archives for a museum focused on his legacy as an entrepreneur and philanthropist that will be constructed inside the west end of the university’s Boone Pickens football stadium. According to the university, Pickens committed nearly $650 million to OSU.

“Even today, almost four years after his death, he continues to make an impact for good through the generosity of his foundation,” said OSU president Kayse Shrum. “As a result, a new generation of Oklahoma State students will have access to life-changing scholarships, researchers to world-class facilities, and student-athletes to outstanding academic and athletic facilities. Once again, one cannot overstate his impact on our university.”

In a separate press release, the University of Calgary announced a $12.5 million gift from the foundation to the Hotchkiss Brain Institute (HBI)—established by Pickens’ longtime friend Harley Hotchkiss—that includes $9.25 million to endow a fund bolstering the recruitment and training of early-career neuroscientists, $2.25 million to accelerate the commercialization of new discoveries through a business incubator program, and $1 million to support an international scholars program to bring researchers and neuroscientists to Calgary.

“This program will bring together a diverse group of experts and trainees in pursuit of a common goal: the discovery and development of new, improved ways to prevent, detect, and treat neurological and mental health conditions,” said HBI director David Park. “It will support fellowships and scholarships for promising trainees including international trainees, attracting brilliant young minds to HBI to become tomorrow’s neuroscience research leaders.”

(Photo credit: Oklahoma State University)