Boone Pickens Tribute - Video Transcript

M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
Duration: 0 / 05:03

Narrator:

The T. Boone Pickens Academic Tower is a tribute to a living legend. The Pickens Tower is the newest and the tallest building of the University of Texas, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center campus. 21-stories tall, the tower has 730,000 square feet of space providing greatly needed office for faculty and staff in research, education, patient care and prevention. After years of planning and design work, construction of the Pickens Academic Tower began in November of 2005 and in spring of 2008, the tower welcomed its first occupants in the new Research Medical Library on the 21st floor. In addition to the library, other planned amenities include a comprehensive fitness center and locker rooms, conference services and rooms, as well as food and vending services. The Pickens Academic Tower was named in honor of T. Boone Pickens whose T. Boone Pickens Foundation recently made a generous donation, the largest gift M. D. Anderson has received in our 66th-year history.

John Mendelsohn, M.D.:

Today, we honor and thank Boone Pickens for his transformational gift of 50 million dollars to M. D. Anderson.

Narrator:

Over the next 25 years, this 50-million dollar fund will be grown to 500 million dollars, at which time M. D. Anderson will apply the funds to the highest priority needs in our mission to eliminate cancer.

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Mr. Pickens started his career as a paper boy in Holdenville, Oklahoma. After college, with a degree in Geology, he began his career, forming several oil and gas companies leading to his biggest Mesa Petroleum which went public in 1964. During the 1980's, he spread the message of responsibility, the responsibility of corporate management to the shareholder. Mr. Pickens left Mesa Oil in the mid 1990's and soon formed the Pickens Fuel Corporation, focusing on natural gas as an alternative fuel. Boone Pickens is a champion of wellness and conservation programs and is involved in numerous philanthropic endeavors. Recently, Mr. Pickens was awarded the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship, a prestigious award given to executives who have shown a deep concern for the common good beyond the bottom line. Here's what friends had to say about him.

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Ebby Halliday:

He has done so much good for so many people. Boone Pickens is a doer.

Paul M. Bass, Jr.:

Boone is the ultimate corporate citizen.

Dr. Ann Stuart:

What I do know is the kindness and the generosity, the sense of humor, the fun and also the directness.

Kay Bailey Hutchison:

I think that he is a Texan all the way and I love the spirit. He's been an entrepreneur. He has been an inspiration to so many people that you can do it on your own way, you can be different and you can really be successful.

Jerry Jones:

Boone, congratulations on such a prestigious award. At this time of the year, we're starting our football season and the cowboys are getting ready to tee it up. I'm getting to go all over the country and it tells you something when you step off with a star on your lapel and you're so proud of the cowboys and they say, "I recognized you, you're the friend of Boone Pickens." Boone, we are all proud of you and again, congratulations.

Rick Perry:

It's an inspiring thing to turn on TV, to see Boone Pickens talking to the world about how to change that world. That's the Texas spirit, that's the Texas innovation, that's the Texas visionary that truly sets you apart.

Narrator:

And that vision will benefit so many whose lives are affected by cancer in Texas, the nation and the world. On behalf of all of us at M. D. Anderson, our patients and their families, we thank you for your generosity. The impact of which will change the future of cancer care.

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