Texas Tech University has announced a gift of $44 million from alumnus Gordon W. Davis and his wife, Joyce, in support of the university’s College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources.

The largest gift in the university’s history includes $25 million to create an endowment to directly benefit the college, $4 million to establish the Gordon and Joyce Davis Endowment for Excellence in Meat and Food Science, and $15 million in support of future educational efforts within the college. In recognition of the gift, the university will rename its agricultural college the Gordon W. Davis College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources.

Longtime supporters of the university, in 2006 the Davis family awarded $1 million to establish the Gordon W. Davis Meat Science Enhancement Endowment and the Gordon W. Davis Endowed Chair in the Department of Animal & Food Sciences, and in 1997 helped establish the Gordon W. Davis Endowed Scholarship.

“I think agriculture is a sleeping giant,” said Davis, who spent 10 years as an associate professor in the college. “We’re out here in West Texas, one of the great agriculture areas of the whole world. We have great alumni from all over the country, especially Texas, that love the college and love the education they got in agriculture at Texas Tech. So why wouldn’t we want to do this and get it better and better and better? The sleeping giant gets realized and becomes one of the preeminent colleges of agricultural sciences in the world.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/Dmytro Diedov)