COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- Ray B. Nesbitt of Houston has committed $1.1 million to chemical engineering at Texas A&M University.

"Texas A&M gave us a great start that resulted in a very successful career with Exxon, and we want to share some of the benefits," said Nesbitt, retired president of Exxon Chemical Co. and a vice chair for the university's One Spirit One Vision Campaign.

The bulk of the gift establishes the Ray B. Nesbitt Endowment for Faculty Excellence in Chemical Engineering. The $1 million fund will provide four endowed professorships to support the teaching, research, service and professional development activities of outstanding scholars.

"Ray Nesbitt has been a longtime friend of the chemical engineering department who has given selflessly of his time and fortune. We are deeply in his debt, and his generosity has had an enormously positive impact upon the department," said Dr. Kenneth R. Hall, chemical engineering department head and holder of the Jack E. and Frances Brown Chair in Engineering.

An additional $100,000 gift, earmarked for construction of a new chemical engineering building, was recognized by the naming of the Ray Nesbitt '55 Undergraduate Study Area.

The seven-story, $38 million Jack E. Brown Engineering Building, which houses the chemical engineering department, opened for classes earlier this year. Formal dedication ceremonies are set for April 22.

A native of Marshall, Ray Nesbitt earned a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from Texas A&M in 1955. He joined Exxon that same year as a junior engineer and rose through the ranks to serve as president of Enjay Chemical's Fibers and Laminates division, vice president of Esso Chemical Europe, vice president (plastics) and senior vice president at Exxon Chemical, and then president of Exxon Chemical Americas.

He was appointed executive vice president of Exxon International Co., a position he held until joining Reliance Electric Co. in 1985. Nesbitt returned to Exxon Chemical in 1987 as executive vice president and assumed the presidency in 1992.

Nesbitt currently is a director of Hibernia National Bank, Hibernia Corp. and Cleco Corp. He served as a director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas - Houston Branch from January 1997 to December 2002.

A member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, he has held leadership positions with the U.S. Chemical Manufacturers Association, American Plastics Council, Chlorine Chemistry Council and Chemical Industry Institute of Toxicology, among others. He was a founding member of the American Industrial Health Council.

At Texas A&M, Nesbitt previously endowed the Joe M. Nesbitt Professorship in Chemical Engineering and two scholarships in the department's Lindsay Scholars Program. He serves on the chemical engineering department's advisory council and is an emeritus member of the college's Engineering Advisory Council. He received the College of Engineering Alumnus Honor Award in 1991.

He and his wife, Sarah, are 28-year, Diamond-level Century Club members of the Association of Former Students. They are members of the A&M Legacy Society, which recognizes supporters for cumulative lifetime and estate giving to the university, Texas A&M Foundation, Association of Former Students, 12th Man Foundation and George Bush Presidential Library Foundation.

The Nesbitts' gift will be counted in One Spirit One Vision Campaign, the university's multiyear fundraising 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 fundraising campaign.

For more information, contact

Author: Exa York
979/862-3567
e-york@tamu.edu

News Story 1143, April 5, 2005

Direct page link:
http://engineeringnews.tamu.edu/news/1143

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