Jun 07, 2023 01:23 PM EDT By David Thompson, UniversityHerald Reporter

Dallas billionaire Kelcy Warren has always been known for many things - including his philanthropic spirit and his desire to give back to the communities and institutions he loves in any way possible. Since his career began and up through his founding of the Dallas, Texas-based oil company Energy Transfer, he has seen first-hand what a positive impact hard work and perseverance can make. He's also seen the positive change that can be empowered when those who have achieved success look outward to help make sure that as many people as possible have access to the same resources they did. 

That is a large part of what inspired him to not just donate to the University of Texas-Arlington. Recently, he made the biggest single donation ever to the school, coming in at a massive $12 million.

For Kelcy Warren, the goal of this is simple: he wants to help elevate not only the school itself to "the forefront of the growing resource and energy field," but the engineering department. Warren indicated that he wanted to help empower faculty and research excellence, something that most people can agree should always be a top priority.

Fueling Research and Excellence Moving Forward

Kelcy Warren himself graduated from the University of Texas-Arlington back in 1978. He's always considered the institution an important one in his life, having played a crucial role in both his education and his larger career to date.

As a direct result of the donation, UT-Arlington will name three endowed academic positions all in Kelcy Warren's honor. Additionally, the money will be used to help build a laboratory, to create a "career experience center," and to help make sure that future scholarship and fellowship recipients will have access to the funds they need to succeed on their own terms, just as Warren did.

All told, the $12 million from the Kelcy Warren donation will allow UT-Arlington to accomplish a number of important things. Perhaps the most important is that the school will be able to create the Kelcy Warren Endowed Professorship in Resource and Energy Engineering. This will allow the school to recruit, compensate, and retain one of the brightest minds in the world to help lead the program, which directly speaks to what Mr. Warren was talking about in his announcement.

The money will also help support research experiences for engineering undergraduates in the name of preparing them for their future careers in the energy industry. The aforementioned Kelcy Warren Career Experience Center will also be used to create new and exciting opportunities for undergraduate engineering students, allowing them to engage in new learning experiences like internships, co-ops, and more.

As the youngest of four children, Kelcy Warren had the values of both money and hard work instilled within him from an early age. Even though his parents were doing "fine" in a technical sense, they were always very worried about having enough income to provide for the family. Because of that, both parents would regularly take jobs to supplement their primary ones to help generate as much extra money as possible.

Warren's father, for example, took on a paper route at one point. He would get up at 2:30am to roll papers for his customers and put rubber bands around them for their convenience. Kelcy Warren regularly had to get up just as early to help with the actual delivery process.

All this is so critical because of the increased role that the energy industry plays in our lives. The energy industry in the United States has long been considered to be one of the major drivers of the country's economy, for example. Without a consistent energy supply, the welfare and health of every person who lives within our borders is threatened. At a certain point, the country would be unable to function. This is an idea that is only going to get more important as the quest for a truly renewable energy source continues well into the next decade and beyond.

In the end, this is just one of the many examples of the philanthropic efforts that Kelcy Warren regularly engages in. In recent memory, he's also been lauded for donating money that directly helped to fund the Klyde Warren Park, which itself is located in downtown Dallas. If the name sounds familiar, it should - it's named after Kelcy's own son, Klyde.

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