Published: July 23, 2008 11:19 pm         

Donation by Wards to create endowed professorship chair

A donation by Enid residents Lew and Myra Ward will help create an endowed chair in Oklahoma State University’s College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology.

The $500,000 the Wards gave will create a petroleum engineering chair to support the college’s emerging interdisciplinary petroleum engineering program. It was one of more than $1.6 million in donations announced Wednesday by OSU to fund four endowed professorships and the chair in the engineering college.

Once fully matched by T. Boone Pickens’ $100 million chair match commitment and Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, the gifts will provide nearly $6.5 million of impact in endowed funds.

Founder of Ward Petroleum, Lew Ward began the company in 1963 near Enid. Since that time Ward Petroleum has drilled more than 800 wells in the Anadarko and Arkoma Basins, some as deep as 22,000 feet.

“I gave because there is a great need for engineers and (OSU) President (Burns) Hargis asked me to help,” he said. “We would like to build a fleet of engineers.”

Other donors include Ray and Linda Booker, as well as several pooled donations to the Dale F. Janes Professorship in Fire Protection, the Wilson Bentley Professorship in Industrial Engineering and Management and the Centen-nial Professorship in Architec-ture and Architectural Engin-eering.

“We sincerely appreciate everything the Wards, Bookers and our many pooled donors have done for OSU and want to say a special thanks for these important gifts,” Hargis said. “The response from our alumni and friends has exceeded our wildest expectations. Inspired by Boone Pickens’ astounding generosity, donors answered the call to make a lasting difference and open a new and exciting chapter at OSU.”

In order to take full advantage of the state’s dollar-for-dollar match, donors made their gifts prior to the July 1 change in the state’s endowed chair matching program.

Endowed professorships and chairs are academic designations that provide support for faculty salary, graduate assistantships, equipment and research needs, as well as other support.