It’s been a busy month for the AAPG Foundation as initiatives have moved forward, members were honored and a significant gift was received to start a new program.
It’s been a busy month for the AAPG Foundation as initiatives have moved forward, members were honored and a significant gift was received to start a new program.
The gift was a $250,000 donation from David “Scotty” Holland, a Trustee Associate and Member of the Foundation Corporation, which will endow the first AAPG Foundation Named Professorship.
The AAPG Foundation/Holland Professorship will be designated to Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas.
Holland, now retired, began his career with Marathon Oil (1957-66), then spent three decades with Pennzoil in a variety of countries and positions, including president and chairman of 17 different Pennzoil international subsidiaries.
In other Foundation news:
♦ This year the Grants-in-Aid Committee will award the first Ike Crumbly Minorities in Energy Grant in the amount of $500.
The Ike Crumby Minorities in Energy Grant, was established in 2003 by the AAPG Membership/Diversity Subcommittee to honor educator Isaac J. “Ike” Crumbly at Fort Valley State University.
The selected recipient must be a graduate geoscience student who is female and/or a visibly ethnic minority (black, Hispanic, Asian or Native American, which includes American Indian, Eskimo, Hawaiian or Samoan.)
♦ The 2008 Chairman’s Award was presented to Trustee Emeritus and AAPG Honorary member Jack C. Threet at the Foundation Chairmen’s Reception in San Antonio.
The Chairman’s Award recognizes those who have made extraordinary contributions (service or monetary) to the AAPG Foundation.
Threet recently co-chaired the Foundation’s Financial Campaign, “Meeting Challenges … Assuring Success.”
The award was first presented in 1999, to the late Michel T. Halbouty. Other past recipients include L. Austin Weeks, James E. Wilson, Merrill W. Haas, Hugh Looney, Lawrence W. Funkhouser, Fred A. Dix, Robert W. Esser and Eugene F. “Bud” Reid.
♦ In an effort to promote alliances between societies, Foundation Chairmen William Fisher and Paul Strunk recently invited the SEG Foundation Trustee Associates to attend the next AAPG Foundation Trustee Associates meeting, set Sept. 3-7 in Jackson Hole, Wyo.
♦ Finally, the Foundation Trustee Associates have another new member.
Fred Barrett, of Bill Barrett Corp. in Denver, recently joined, bringing the group’s total to 260.