Thank You! Foundation Tops $35 Million Goal!

By NATALIE ADAMS, AAPG Foundation Manager

You did it!

If you are one of the 2,141 donors who contributed to the AAPG Foundation in the last five years, you helped us exceed the $35 million goal – by $671,041!

That number may yet rise, as all contributions postmarked through Dec. 31 are not counted and the mail is still rolling in.

Thank you for allowing the AAPG Foundation to serve our industry and budding geologists in so many ways.

 

Over $1.2 million of the total $2.2 million received by the AAPG Foundation in contributions in 2011 went into endowment funds. See this story online for a chart showing the funds that benefitted from those gifts.

 

Foundation fundsClick to Enlarge

Five grants totaling more than $121,000 were recently approved by the Foundation Trustees for cartographic projects to be completed through the AAPG-OSU Geoscience GIS Consortium. The funds will be used for “Stratigraphic Distribution of Hydrocarbon Production” from 19 counties in Abilene, Texas, Pennsylvania Digital Oil and Gas Mapping, Wilcox Group and Carrizo Sand in East Central Texas-Depositional Systems and Deep Basin Lignite, Appalachian Shales and Tectonics of the Western Indian Ocean.

The Trustees also recently approved a proposal for funds to be applied toward the Publication Pipeline, which provides used geoscience books and periodicals at no cost to eligible libraries that request them.

In the program, geoscientists or company libraries donate the books, and the Foundation provides funding for warehousing and shipping.

Also approved was funding for 10 framed, laminated U.S. Geological Survey “Tapestry of Time and Terrain” maps to be distributed at nine “More! Rocks in Your Head” workshops, and for rolled maps to be distributed to each program participant.

To date, 80 framed maps and 452 rolled maps have been distributed at 10 workshops in Odessa, Longview, Conroe, Dallas (two), Mount Pleasant and Houston, Texas; Ruidoso, N.M.; Washington, D.C.; and Oklahoma City.

 

Several Foundation funds received major contributions recently:

  • The Search and Discovery and Imperial Barrel Award funds each received a huge boost when Anadarko Petroleum contributed $520,000 to fulfill a 10-year pledge to the AAPG Foundation.
  • James A. Hartman, a longtime supporter of student leadership, recently contributed over $300,000 to the Student Leadership Summit Fund, which has been named after him.
  • True to his giving nature, Jack Threet donated $150,000 “in honor of all who so generously support the AAPG Foundation.” This gift went to the Jack C. and Catherine I. Threet Endowed Fund for the Advancement of Petroleum Geology.
  • Jerry Namy contributed a $10,000 gift, which will go to support the new Professorial Award Fund.
  • John Silcox aided the Grants-in-Aid program this month by a $12,000 increase to the John H. and Colleen Silcox Named Grant, as did Rosann Hooks by contributing to the James E. Hooks Memorial Grant, providing a scholarship to a student at either Florida State University or Texas A&M.
  • Two new scholarships were established for the Universities of Missouri and Wisconsin, thanks to Merrill Shields in honor of her husband and AAPG Foundation Board Trustee, M. Ray Thomasson.
  • The Amoruso Special Publications Fund was strengthened by a $10,000 donation from John Amoruso. Bill Barrett gave an equal amount to the general fund, as did Jim Gibbs to the James A. Gibbs Family Fund.

The Foundation is exceedingly thankful for the generous gifts.  End of Story