The post Digital Wildcatters: The Life and Times of T. Boone Pickens appeared first on Boone Pickens.

The Boone Pickens Legacy Experience is slated to open in 2024, but a rolling preview tribute to the “ultimate Cowboy” will be on display Saturday in Stillwater. 

The Boone Pickens Legacy Experience, which will be located in the West End Zone complex at Boone Pickens Stadium, will serve as a magnificent tribute to Pickens and his unwavering commitment to Oklahoma State University. Construction on the privately funded, 10,000-square-foot installation is slated to begin in early 2024. It will feature interactive and visually rich exhibits showcasing his life and accomplishments. 

One of its floors will house iconic recreations of settings significant to Pickens’ life, such as his childhood home in Holdenville, Oklahoma; his office; and a replica of his 1955 Ford station wagon that served as his mobile office when he started his business.

This year’s Sea of Orange Parade will showcase the rare car before it takes up permanent residence at the Boone Pickens Legacy Experience. 

“The Legacy Experience will be located in the house Boone built on the university’s campus in Stillwater,” OSU President Kayse Shrum said. “This world-class exhibit will inspire generations to come, who will learn about Mr. Pickens’ legacy and his contributions to the university and beyond.”

The Boone Pickens Legacy Experience is being created by Boston-based exhibition design firm Amaze Design, led by founder and creative director Andy Anway. 

Known for his extraordinary work designing engaging visitor experiences, including the Perot Museum of Nature and Science, Bob Dylan: Electric at the American Writers Museum, Ross Perot Legacy Hall and the Sue S. Bancroft Women’s Leadership Hall, Anway and his team have designed this facility to be an inspiration for current and future generations. 

A titan in business, Pickens believed he learned his most important life lessons growing up in a small Oklahoma town, lessons that were honed during his time at OSU. The Boone Pickens Legacy Experience will feature stories from Pickens’ remarkable life told through an expansive collection of artifacts, gifts, awards, mementos and memorabilia amassed over Pickens’ lifetime.

“Boone Pickens was a visionary, in business and in his philanthropy,” Anway said. “He forever changed corporate governance by advocating for shareholder value. And in his philanthropy he urged others to follow his lead and to give while you live. Nowhere was this philosophy more evident than in his gifts of over $600 million toward athletic and academic initiatives at his beloved alma mater during his lifetime.” 

Bob Howard restored the station wagon for the parade, which will showcase an “independent spirit” exhibit highlighting Pickens’ decision to pursue self-employment rather than working for a big oil company. Since the vehicle served as his office while traveling across Oklahoma and Texas, the back of the vintage vehicle will serve as a de facto display case for vintage geology equipment that a geologist from the 1950s would use.

OSU Athletic Director emeritus Mike Holder, a longtime friend of Pickens, and Holder’s wife, Robbie, will drive the vehicle in the parade.

“Mr. Pickens’ admiration for Mike Holder is well known, and the two of them worked side-by-side to reimagine and reinvent Oklahoma State athletic facilities, especially football,” said Jay Rosser, Pickens’ longtime chief of staff.. “In recognition of their remarkable partnership, it is fitting that Mike Holder and his wife, Robbie, are the first to drive and ride in the 1955 Ford station wagon.”

Holder said driving the car in the parade is an honor.

“It symbolizes Boone’s humble beginnings, hard work and tenacity to overcome hurdles to become one of America’s most outstanding entrepreneurs and generous philanthropists,” he said. “His impact on Oklahoma State is immeasurable, and it is most appropriate his legacy will be forever enshrined in the stadium we named in honor of his record-setting gifts to athletics.”

The post Oklahoma State University, Boone Pickens Foundation reveal plans for ‘Boone Pickens Legacy Experience’ appeared first on Boone Pickens.

T. Boone Pickens will be permanently honored with a statue at the Oklahoma State University stadium that bears his name. Sculpted out of bronze by Enid-based artist Harold Holden, the nine-foot-tall statue will be unveiled before OSU’s November 28 game against Texas Tech.

Read more via okstate.com: Boone Pickens Statue Coming to Oklahoma State Football Stadium

The post Boone Pickens Statue Coming to Oklahoma State Football Stadium appeared first on Boone Pickens.

The auction is expected to net $15 million with a portion going to Boone’s philanthropy.

The late legendary oilman, who died last September at 91, loved artwork that depicted the dignity of Native Americans in the Old West, Texas oil-and-gas wildcatting and the comfortable daily aspects of humble, country folks like the ones he grew up with.

The sale features works by Western art giants Frederic Remington, Thomas Moran and N.C. Wyeth as well as paintings by prominent contemporary painters Howard Terpning and G. Harvey.

Read more via dallasnews.com: T. Boone Pickens estate hires Christie’s to sell Western masterpieces

The post T. Boone Pickens estate hires Christie’s to sell Western masterpieces appeared first on Boone Pickens.

On the first anniversary of the passing of Boone Pickens, we partnered with our friends at Oklahoma State for a special dedication of his boyhood home, known widely as the “Holdenville House.” That home, and Boone’s adjacent burial site, is now at Karsten Creek Golf Club — home of the OSU men’s and women’s golf teams – in Stillwater, OK.

The house, constructed in the 1920s, was Boone’s residence until the family moved to Amarillo when he was 16. The house was moved to Boone’s Mesa Vista Ranch a decade ago.

On his LinkedIn account months before he passed, Boone wrote about the history of the home and outlined why it would be moved to Karsten Creek Golf Club, down the road from his beloved Oklahoma State University. The article, which includes stunning drone video of the home leaving Mesa Vista Ranch, can be read here.

The dedication ceremony was livestreamed today at precisely 12:32 pm CT to mark the exact moment of his passing. The presentation featured Oklahoma State University President Burns Hargis, OSU Athletic Director Mike Holder, and former OSU and NFL quarterback Brandon Weeden. You can view the view here.

The post Holdenville House Dedication appeared first on Boone Pickens.

Oklahoma State University has announced that a conference table used daily by the late legendary philanthropist T. Boone Pickens will be lent to the Oklahoma governor’s Cabinet Room for the next decade.

In one of his last acts, Pickens sold his conference room table and its 22 chairs to Gary and Claudia Humphreys, who in turn donated the table set to OSU. Humphreys is co-founder, executive chairman and CEO of Vista Proppants and Logistics LLC.

Pickens designed and bought the table 14 years ago. In January 2018, after suffering health setbacks, he announced that he was closing his hedge fund, BP Capital, to concentrate on his private investments. He began downsizing his offices and no longer had room for it.

“For now, the table I have long loved has to go. Come and take it and the history that goes with it,” Pickens said then. “We put close to $75,000 into the table and 22 leather chairs that go with it. We’re starting at $25,000.” The table is a four-pedestal behemoth, measuring 24 feet long by 5 feet wide, inlaid with golden cherry and walnut wood.

Humphreys purchased the set for $30,000.

“Thanks to the generosity of alumni Gary and Claudia Humphreys, Oklahoma State is honored to play a part in placing a historic piece from Boone Pickens’ legendary career in the Oklahoma State Capitol,” said OSU President Burns Hargis. “We are especially proud of the OSU Cowboy link between alumni Pickens, Humphreys and Gov. Kevin Stitt.”

“We are thankful for the generosity of the Humphreys family and honored to house this conference room table that is tied to the legacy of Mr. T. Boone Pickens,” Stitt said. “T. Boone Pickens is a successful entrepreneur, proud Oklahoman and generous philanthropist who has made a significant contribution through job creation and economic growth in our great state. Residing in the State Capitol, this table will be a signature piece to host Oklahoma’s thought leaders, decisionmakers and delegates from around the nation as they shape today’s policies and continue to make history.”

At this table, Pickens negotiated deals worth billions, hosted athletes, philanthropists, business people and celebrities — and politicians.

Luminaries who have sat around the table include former President George W. Bush, Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, former Dallas Cowboys receiver Dez Bryant, former New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez, musician Garth Brooks and cable television pioneer and philanthropist Ted Turner, among scores of others.

The last VIP to sit at the table was Stitt, who inquired about the table after reading an article in The Dallas Morning News. Pickens died Sept. 11 at the age of 91.

Read more via The Dallas Morning News: T. Boone Pickens’ power table heads to Oklahoma state capitol

CONTACTS:
Gov. Kevin Stitt: Baylee Lakey Baylee.Lakey@gov.ok.gov 405-889-1479
BP Capital: Jay Rosser jrosser@bpcap.net 214-265-4165
OSU Foundation: Jennifer Kinnard jkinnard@osugiving.com 405-385-5185
OSU: Monica Roberts monica.roberts@okstate.edu 405-744-4800

The post T. Boone Pickens’ Iconic Conference Table Heads to Cabinet Room in Oklahoma Governor’s Office appeared first on Boone Pickens.

The post The Life and Times of T. Boone Pickens appeared first on Boone Pickens.

Mr. Pickens’ website and social media accounts are now being maintained by T. Boone Pickens Foundation team members.

If you are reading this, I have passed on from this world — not as big a deal for you as it was for me.

In my final months, I came to the sad reality that my life really did have a fourth quarter and the clock really would run out on me. I took the time to convey some thoughts that reflect back on my rich and full life.

I was able to amass 1.9 million Linkedin followers. On Twitter, more than 145,000 (thanks, Drake). This is my goodbye to each of you.

One question I was asked time and again: What is it that you will leave behind?

That’s at the heart of one of my favorite poems, “Indispensable Man,” which Saxon White Kessinger wrote in 1959. Here are a few stanzas that get to the heart of the matter:

Sometime when you feel that your going
Would leave an unfillable hole,
Just follow these simple instructions
And see how they humble your soul; 

Take a bucket and fill it with water,
Put your hand in it up to the wrist,
Pull it out and the hole that’s remaining
Is a measure of how you’ll be missed. 

You can splash all you wish when you enter,
You may stir up the water galore,
But stop and you’ll find that in no time
It looks quite the same as before.

You be the judge of how long the bucket remembers me.

I’ve long recognized the power of effective communication. That’s why in my later years I began to reflect on the many life lessons I learned along the way, and shared them with all who would listen.

Fortunately, I found the young have a thirst for this message. Many times over the years, I was fortunate enough to speak at student commencement ceremonies, and that gave me the chance to look out into a sea of the future and share some of these thoughts with young minds. My favorite of these speeches included my grandchildren in the audience.

What I would tell them was this Depression-era baby from tiny Holdenville, Oklahoma — that wide expanse where the pavement ends, the West begins, and the Rock Island crosses the Frisco — lived a pretty good life.

In those speeches, I’d always offer these future leaders a deal: I would trade them my wealth and success, my 68,000-acre ranch and private jet, in exchange for their seat in the audience. That way, I told them, I’d get the opportunity to start over, experience every opportunity America has to offer.

It’s your shot now.

If I had to single out one piece of advice that’s guided me through life, most likely it would be from my grandmother, Nellie Molonson. She always made a point of making sure I understood that on the road to success, there’s no point in blaming others when you fail.

Here’s how she put it:

“Sonny, I don’t care who you are. Some day you’re going to have to sit on your own bottom.”

After more than half a century in the energy business, her advice has proven itself to be spot-on time and time again. My failures? I never have any doubt whom they can be traced back to. My successes? Most likely the same guy.

Never forget where you come from. I was fortunate to receive the right kind of direction, leadership, and work ethic  — first in Holdenville, then as a teen in Amarillo, Texas, and continuing in college at what became Oklahoma State University. I honored the values my family instilled in me, and was honored many times over by the success they allowed me to achieve.

I also long practiced what my mother preached to me throughout her life — be generous. Those values came into play throughout my career, but especially so as my philanthropic giving exceeded my substantial net worth in recent years.

For most of my adult life, I’ve believed that I was put on Earth to make money and be generous with it. I’ve never been a fan of inherited wealth. My family is taken care of, but I was far down this philanthropic road when, in 2010, Warren Buffet and Bill Gates asked me to take their Giving Pledge, a commitment by the world’s wealthiest to dedicate the majority of their wealth to philanthropy. I agreed immediately.

I liked knowing that I helped a lot of people. I received letters every day thanking me for what I did, the change I fostered in other people’s lives. Those people should know that I appreciated their letters.

My wealth was built through some key principles, including:

• A good work ethic is critical.
• Don’t think competition is bad, but play by the rules. I loved to compete and win. I never wanted the other guy to do badly; I just wanted to do a little better than he did.
• Learn to analyze well. Assess the risks and the prospective rewards, and keep it simple.
• Be willing to make decisions. That’s the most important quality in a good leader: Avoid the “Ready-aim-aim-aim-aim” syndrome. You have to be willing to fire.
• Learn from mistakes. That’s not just a cliché. I sure made my share. Remember the doors that smashed your fingers the first time and be more careful the next trip through.
• Be humble. I always believed the higher a monkey climbs in the tree, the more people below can see his ass. You don’t have to be that monkey.
• Don’t look to government to solve problems — the strength of this country is in its people.
• Stay fit. You don’t want to get old and feel bad. You’ll also get a lot more accomplished and feel better about yourself if you stay fit. I didn’t make it to 91 by neglecting my health.
• Embrace change. Although older people are generally threatened by change, young people loved me because I embraced change rather than running from it. Change creates opportunity.
• Have faith, both in spiritual matters and in humanity, and in yourself. That faith will see you through the dark times we all navigate.

Over the years, my staff got used to hearing me in a meeting or on the phone asking, “Whaddya got?” That’s probably what my Maker is asking me about now.

Here’s my best answer.

I left an undying love for America, and the hope it presents for all. I left a passion for entrepreneurship, and the promise it sustains. I left the belief that future generations can and will do better than my own.

Thank you. It’s time we all move on.

The post A final message from T. Boone Pickens shared before his passing on September 11, 2019 appeared first on Boone Pickens.

The post BP Capital and Mesa Petroleum Tribute to T. Boone Pickens appeared first on Boone Pickens.

The general public is invited and encouraged to view the services in Wesley Hall at the church. A live stream will also be available below.

Speakers at the event will include Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and Alan White, a long-time friend of Mr. Pickens.

The post Funeral service to honor the life and legacy of T. Boone Pickens appeared first on Boone Pickens.