Fort Collins – Denver gas developer Edward M. Warner donated $26 million to the Colorado State University’s College of Natural Resources, a record gift for CSU, the school announced today.
Warner, who previously donated more than $4 million to the college for two endowed chairs, will have the college named in his honor. It will now be known as the Warner College of Natural Resources.
“This is the single largest gift in the history of Colorado State University and probably the largest ever given to the college of natural resources,” said CSU president Larry Penley at a ceremony attended by more than 100 people in front of the college’s building. “A gift of this magnitude has the power to change the future of natural resource education.”
Warner, who received a bachelor’s degree in geology from CSU in 1968, said the school turned him from an academic underachiever into a scientist.
“What I found at Colorado State University changed my life,” Warner said, reminiscing about the professors who mentored him.
Warner said the gift reflects his “passion for the environment.”
CSU’s Warner College of Natural Resources includes the Departments of Fishery and Wildlife Biology; Forest, Rangeland and Watershed Stewardship; Geosciences; and Natural Resources Recreation and Tourism.
Warner, a graduate of the College of Natural Resources, discovered Jonah Field, the single largest natural gas field in the region in the past 20 years.
He has also made innovations in extracting natural gas from coal and other technological accomplishments.
