IRVING, Texas (Sept. 11, 2019) – T. Boone Pickens, legendary energy executive and one of America's best-known entrepreneurs, passed away Sept. 11 at the age of 91. The recipient of the 2008 NFF Distinguished American Award, Pickens served on the board of the National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame from 2009-15 and as an emeritus member since 2016.
 
"T. Boone Pickens is the epitome of an American success story," said NFF Chairman Archie Manning. "He came from humble beginnings to become one of the country's most lucrative entrepreneurs. Maybe even more impressive was his commitment to philanthropy, donating more than $1 billion in his lifetime. We were honored to have him serve on the National Football Foundation's Board of Directors, and we send our thoughts and prayers to his family."
 
In addition to his service on the NFF Board, Pickens made a lasting impact as one of the most generous collegiate philanthropists of all time, contributing $652 million to his alma mater, Oklahoma State University. His donations to the university were almost evenly divided between academics and athletics, and the school's football stadium is named Boone Pickens Stadium in his honor.
 
"I had the privilege of knowing Boone as a friend for many years, and he was truly one of a kind," said NFF President & CEO Steve Hatchell. "His success in the energy business allowed him to become an avid philanthropist, and his impact in both arenas will be felt for generations to come. We were proud to have him on our Board of Directors and he was more than deserving of our Distinguished American Award in 2008. He will be greatly missed."
 
Pickens was born May 22, 1928, in Holdenville, a small town in eastern Oklahoma, but spent his adult years in Texas. The long-time Dallas resident, who had battled back from a series of strokes and further head injuries sustained in a 2017 fall, died of natural causes surrounded by friends and family.
 
His father was in the oil business, and his mother ran the Office of Price Administration during World War II, rationing gasoline and other goods for four Oklahoma counties. Boone attributed much of his success to lessons learned from his mother and father.
 
As a youth, his family moved to Amarillo, Texas, where he attended high school. After one year at Texas A&M University, Pickens transferred to Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State University), where he earned a degree in geology in 1951.
 
Pickens worked for Phillips Petroleum for three years before striking out on his own in 1954. With $2,500 of borrowed money, Pickens and two investors formed an oil and gas firm called Petroleum Exploration Inc. Later, he formed Altair Oil & Gas Co. to pursue oil and gas exploration opportunities in western Canada.
 
 Both were predecessor companies to Mesa Petroleum, which he founded in 1957 and took public in 1964. Pickens built Mesa into one of America's largest independent natural gas and oil companies. Mesa produced more than 3 trillion cubic feet of gas and 150 million barrels of oil from 1964 to 1996.
 
In 1996, upon leaving Mesa Petroleum at age 68, Pickens embarked on an even more successful career by forming an energy-focused investment firm, BP Capital, one of America's most successful hedge funds primarily focused on oil and gas commodities and energy-dependent equities.
 
In December 2017, he closed his Dallas-based hedge funds and moving toward a family office structure. However, his decades-long presence in the industry lives on. BP Capital Fund Advisors' TriLine (without Pickens' management involvement) introduced a spin-off fund, the NYSE Pickens Oil Response ETF, in February 2018. Under the ticker BOON, the index tracks industry factors shaped by the decades of experience and energy thought leadership of Pickens and his team.
 
In 2010, when fellow billionaires Warren Buffett and Bill Gates went public with their "Giving Pledge," an invitation to "the wealthiest individuals and families in the world to commit to giving the majority of their wealth to philanthropy," Pickens was already there.
 
Generous with his wealth, Pickens, a long-running member of the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans, contributed to a wide range of philanthropic initiatives during his life, and his impact has reached almost $2 billion through innovative matching initiatives. He formed the T. Boone Pickens Foundation in late 2006 to further his support of health and medical research and services, at-risk youth, and educational, entrepreneurial, political and athletic initiatives.
 
In addition to Oklahoma State, other beneficiaries of his giving include University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (among other initiatives, both received $50 million gifts in 2007), the Center for BrainHealth at The University of Texas at Dallas, Scottish Rite Children's Hospital, the T. Boone Pickens Hospice and Palliative Care Center, the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins University, Big Brothers Big Sisters of North Texas, the Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the Fisher House Foundation, Happy Hill Farm, Jonathan's Place, Meals on Wheels, the World Cranial Foundation, The Senior Source, USO Dallas/Fort Worth, Special Olympics of Texas, and Jubilee Park, an inner-city Dallas community.
 
Pickens is a member of the State of Oklahoma Hall of Fame and the Texas Business Hall of Fame. In 2017, Forbes magazine named him one of the 100 "Greatest Living Business Minds" in its 100th anniversary issue.
 
His other awards and recognitions include the 2008 Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars of the Smithsonian Institution Award for Corporate Citizenship, the Texas Legislative Conference's 2009 "Texan of the Year," the Congressional Medal of Honor Society's 2010 Patriot Award and the American Football Coaches Foundation's 2011 CEO Coach of the Year, among countless others.
 
Pickens is survived by five children — Deborah Pickens Stovall, Pam Pickens Grace, Michael Pickens, Tom Pickens and Liz Pickens Cordia — 11 grandchildren and an increasing number of great grandchildren.
 
Plans for a memorial ceremony at Highland Park Methodist Church in Dallas are pending. A later Celebration of Life event will occur at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma, followed by burial on campus. In lieu of flowers, memorials can be sent to the T. Boone Pickens Foundation, 8117 Preston Road, Suite 260W, Dallas, Texas 75225. Donations will support the many charitable endeavors Pickens embraced during his life.