LSU Geology Field Camp Program Named for Alumnus Charles Barney

June 28, 2007

Through a $4.7 million pledge, LSU alum Charles Barney has assured the LSU Geology Field Camp will enjoy a permanent source of funding.

Colorado Springs, CO - Representatives of Louisiana State University have announced the naming of LSU’s Geology Field Camp Program after one of its most distinguished alumni supporters. Charles Barney, a 1949 LSU engineering graduate, recently pledged $4.7 million to the LSU Foundation to permanently fund the camp, which is the oldest continuously-operating field camp in U.S. history. In recognition of his extraordinary generosity and many decades of leadership in the petroleum industry, LSU has re-named the program the “Charles L. Barney Geology Field Camp Program.”

The LSU Geology Field Camp opened in 1928 and serves a vital role within the College of Basic Sciences and the College of Engineering. The field camp gives Geology and Geophysics students, as well as Petroleum Engineering students, the opportunity to take their learning experience beyond the classroom; to explore the complex natural structures and mechanisms which form the blueprint for planet earth. In addition to its priceless quality as a teaching environment, the field camp also serves as a critical recruiting tool for LSU’s science and engineering programs.

LSU Geology teaching assistant Craig McClarren, LSU student Brandon Hartmann, Geology Field Camp alum Charles Barney and LSU students Jonathan Webb, Will Pritchard and Ahmed Altammar share a moment at Camp Barney before the students depart on their daily hike.

Thanks to Charles Barney’s recent gift, the field camp will have a perpetual source of funding for the future. All $4.7 million of the gift will be managed by the LSU Foundation through endowed accounts, which will generate a yearly return on the $4.7 million principle. This return will be used each year by the Charles Barney Geology Field Camp Program to pay for operating expenses, facility improvement and staff salaries for faculty who work at the camp.

“The gift is really unprecedented,” says Dr. Laurie Anderson, head of LSU’s Geology & Geophysics Department. “It’s the largest gift in the Department of Geology & Geophysics or the College of Basic Sciences. The endowments that are going to be created are going to not only ensure the future of the camp, long after we’re all gone, but also help us advance the programs and the facility here. It’s really an amazing opportunity.”

Barney’s $4.7 million pledge is his second major gift for the benefit of LSU students. In 2005, Barney made headlines with a $1.3 million gift to LSU’s STRIPES program. STRIPES is LSU’s expanded orientation program for incoming freshman students, aimed at increasing freshman retention and academic performance in the crucial first year at LSU. “It has been a unique pleasure to work closely with Mr. Barney on both gifts, which total nearly $6 million in permanent endowment” states Dr. Jeff Hale, Senior Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations with the LSU Foundation. “Future generations of LSU students will benefit tremendously from Charles Barney’s visionary philanthropy.”

Charles Barney (back row, sixth from left) with the students, faculty and alumni of LSU’s Geology Field Camp, now known as Camp Barney.

Barney says one of the benefits he receives from giving is seeing the direct effect his actions are having on LSU’s students, particularly at the field camp. “I’ve had a wonderful, lucky life,” says Barney. “And it’s not hard to see the merit of contributions to this camp. It’s just a beautiful place and what you learn here you retain your entire life, and it will be with you forever. And I think that those who attend this camp in the future will feel that way. It’s just a wonderful feeling.”

Barney is a former LSU football player who played on some of LSU’s most successful teams of the 1940’s. He is also a United States Navy veteran of World War II’s Pacific Theatre. Following the war, Barney made a mark in the petroleum industry, serving as a key figure in the Mobil and Superior Oil corporations for several decades. Barney now runs his own business based in Houston, Mark I Enterprises, which invests in oil and gas as well as real estate.

For more information on Charles Barney, the Charles Barney Geology Field Camp program or the LSU Foundation, contact Scott Madere, the Director of Public Relations for the LSU Foundation at 225-578-3826 or e-mail him at smadere@lsufoundation.org.

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Contact: Scott M. Madere
225-578-3826
smadere@lsufoundation.org