Fort Collins – Denver gas entrepreneur Edward M. Warner donated $25.5 million to the Colorado State University’s College of Natural Resources, a record gift for CSU and one of the most generous donations to any university in the state, the school announced Thursday.
Warner, who previously donated more than $4 million to the college for two endowed chairs for total donations of more than $30 million, will have the college named after him. From now on it will be known as 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 a 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, 60, will give $1.5 million a year for the next decade and leave an additional $10.5 million in his will, but he said he expects to give that money before he dies.
The money will pay for research grants, another endowed chair and a conservation institute that will work with government and private landowners to conserve and manage natural resources.
A New York native, Warner made his fortune in a gas field 30 miles south of Pinedale, Wyo., in the 1990s.
After graduating from CSU, he received a master’s degree at the University of California at Los Angeles.
He worked first at Shell Oil Co. and then at Amoco Production Co., focusing on extracting natural gas from coal seams.
In 1982, he formed a gas and oil firm, Expedition Oil Co., and partnered with Wyoming-based McMurry Oil Co. on Wyoming’s Jonah Field, which is expected to produce as much as $60 billion worth of gas, according to a CSU news release. In 1999, he closed his company, retaining royalty rights for the field, and two years later gave CSU the two endowed chairs.
Since then, he has been traveling, working on conservation projects – including, he said, tagging black rhinos in Africa – and looking for ways to expand science education.
Students and professors at the natural-resources college were overwhelmed by the gift.
“This is a historical event at our college,” said professor Tom Hobbs, head of the forest, rangeland and watershed stewardship department.
Melissa McHale, who is studying for her Ph.D. in the department, said she hopes this will expand students’ teaching experiences and classes.
“It gives more opportunity for more classes, and there are a lot of people who want to (be teaching assistants),” McHale said after the ceremony.
Staff writer Arthur Kane can be reached at 303-820-1626 or akane@denverpost.com.
