Public universities like UMR can no longer rely on as much state support as they have in the past. Fortunately, UMR raised more private money during the last fiscal year than in any other year of the university’s history.

The total amount of private funds raised in fiscal year 2006 exceeded $21 million, topping the $19.4 million raised in fiscal year 2005. These private donations will go a long way toward helping UMR maintain and grow its reputation as the state’s premier technological research institution.

Here are some of the largest private gifts announced in the 2005–2006 fiscal year:

• Nucor Corp. donated $2 million to endow the Kenneth Iverson Steel Technology Chair in the materials science and engineering department.
• Chevron Corp. pledged $1.5 million to establish an academic partnership with UMR to facilitate exchanges between Chevron researchers, UMR scientists and students. The Chevron gift will provide for the hiring of additional petroleum engineering faculty and for on-site training at Chevron. The gift will also provide
  for upgrades of UMR’s Heavy Oil Extraction Lab and for general scholarships.
• John, CE’67, MS CE’68, and Susan Mathes of St. Louis added $550,000 to a previous donation of $550,000, which created an endowed professorship in 1995. Vernon, CE’53, and Maralee Jones of Tulsa, Okla., added $525,000 to a previous donation of $580,000, which created an endowed professorship in 1997. These increases to existing endowments will upgrade the two professorships to full chairs, the John A. and Susan Mathes Chair of Civil Engineering and the Vernon and Maralee Jones Chair of Civil Engineering.
• The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City awarded UMR a matching grant to help improve pre-college engineering education. UMR will receive $387,000 over a four-year period to support Project Lead The Way, an effort to improve the pre-engineering curriculum in high schools and middle schools.
• Robert Brackbill, Min’42, Cay Brackbill, Mary Hargis, GeoE’84, and Mark Hargis, GeoE’84, donated more than $150,000 to create a state-of-the-art Petroleum Engineering Technology Classroom in McNutt Hall.

“Nearly 20 percent of our alumni contribute to UMR each and every year as an expression of their gratitude for the past and confidence in the future,” says Connie Eggert, vice chancellor of university advancement. “These donors are giving to the next generation of UMR and investing in its graduates.”