COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- The Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University has a new moniker: the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering.

The department, in the Dwight Look College of Engineering, is named after Arthur "Artie" McFerrin, a 1965 graduate of the department and a longtime supporter of chemical engineering at Texas A&M. The Board of Regents of The Texas A&M University System approved naming the department after McFerrin at its monthly board meeting March 24 in College Station.

A member and current chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering's Advisory Council, McFerrin has committed $10 million to establish an endowed fund to support the department. He and his son, Jeff McFerrin '92, previously established the McFerrin Professorship in Chemical Engineering to support teaching, research and professional activities of an outstanding faculty member.

"Texas A&M and the chemical engineering department have been great for myself and many others," McFerrin said. "The department has had and continues to have outstanding and dedicated professors who are positively contributing to the students' futures. I'd like to contribute by helping build on this excellence."

Dr. G. Kemble Bennett, vice chancellor and dean of engineering, said, "This is a most significant gift to bestow upon a department in our college. Mr. McFerrin built a successful career upon completion of his engineering education at Texas A&M, and we are proud to identify our Department of Chemical Engineering with his name."

A native of Beaumont, Texas, Artie McFerrin joined the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M and graduated in 1965 with a chemical engineering bachelor's degree before completing a master's in chemical engineering at Texas A&M. Over the past 30 years as an entrepreneur, Artie has built several companies in the chemical industry, including KMCO, KMTEX and South Coast Terminals. These companies provide custom chemical manufacturing and processing services for the chemical and oil industry.

McFerrin's wife, Dorothy (Jersild) McFerrin, is also a native of Beaumont and has earned bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Houston. She has been an active volunteer in education and many charities in the Houston area. In addition to son Jeff, who is also a Texas A&M chemical engineering graduate and vice president of KMCO, the couple has a daughter, Jennifer. Jennifer is a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles and Pepperdine University and currently works at South Coast Terminals.

McFerrin's recent gift will be counted in One Spirit One Vision Campaign, the university's multiyear fund-raising campaign aimed at helping Texas A&M attain national top 10 status among public universities, and in Campaign for Excellence, the endowment portion of the chemical engineering department's Stepping Up to the Challenge multiyear fund-raising campaign.

The chemical engineering department moved into a new seven-story, $38 million building in the fall. The department's fall 2004 enrollment was 471 undergraduate and 131 graduate students. Texas A&M chemical engineering graduates are heavily recruited (887 interviews by 127 employers during the 2003-04 school year) by the petrochemical and refining sectors and a variety of other industries including semiconductor, food processing and paper.

For more information, contact

Reporter: Lesley Kriewald
lesleyk@tamu.edu
(979) 845-5524

News Story 1140, March 25, 2005

Direct page link:
http://engineeringnews.tamu.edu/news/1140

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