Education  April 28, 2016

Energy exec donates $13M for CSU scholarships, construction

FORT COLLINS — The head of a Texas-based liquefied natural gas company has made contributions to Colorado State University totaling $13 million to fund new scholarships and construction projects, the university announced Thursday.

The gifts from CSU alumnus Michael Smith, chairman and chief executive of Houston-based Freeport LNG, will pay for new scholarships focused on business, natural resources and chemistry, complete funding for a new natural-resources building and contribute to the new alumni center.

“I have always felt that I owe a tremendous amount of my success in the energy patch to my education at CSU,” Smith told BizWest on Thursday afternoon. “I love the city of Fort Collins and was in a financial position to help CSU.”

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Smith said his company is building a $12.5 billion liquefied natural gas exporting facility in Freeport, Texas.

“Michael Smith is a brilliant, visionary business leader who, with this gift, has extended that vision to Colorado State University,” CSU president Tony Frank said in a media release. “We are humbled by his generosity and profoundly inspired by what we believe this will do for our students, alumni, and academic programs.”

According to the release, Smith’s gift includes:

• $5 million to create 50 full-tuition four-year scholarships in the College of Business, in honor of that college’s 50th anniversary, including 13 endowed Michael Smith Elite Business Scholars awards and 37 Michael Smith 50th Anniversary Scholarship awards.

• $3.7 million to complete funding to build the Michael Smith Natural Resources Building in the Warner College of Natural Resources, the final gift needed to secure the $20 million in private and public funding support necessary to break ground.

• $3.5 million for the 20,000-square-foot Michael and Iris Smith Alumni Center, to be located in the northeast corner of the new on-campus football stadium, adjacent to the educational portion of the facility.

• $400,000 to create 10 full-ride, four-year Michael Smith Scholarships in the Department of Geosciences in the Warner College of Natural Resources.

• $400,000 to create 10 full-tuition four-year Michael Smith Scholarships in the Department of Chemistry in the College of Natural Sciences. “Chemistry is my old major there,” Smith said.

Prior to his position at Freeport, Smith was chairman and CEO of Fort Collins-based Basin Exploration, which he founded in 1981 and sold to Stone Energy in 2001. He attended CSU in the 1970s, and holds an honorary doctorate of humane letters from the school.

He is a past president of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association and served on its board for more than 10 years.

Dallas Heltzell
With BizWest since 2012 and in Colorado since 1979, Dallas worked at the Longmont Times-Call, Colorado Springs Gazette, Denver Post and Public News Service. A Missouri native and Mizzou School of Journalism grad, Dallas started as a sports writer and outdoor columnist at the St. Charles (Mo.) Banner-News, then went to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch before fleeing the heat and humidity for the Rockies. He especially loves covering our mountain communities.
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