Jerry and Nancy Dumas Provide $2 Million of Support Across the University

L to R: Forever LSU Campaign Chair and former Congressman Henson Moore, LSU Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Astrid Merget, Nancy and Jerry Dumas and LSU Chancellor Michael Martin.

September 29, 2008

LSU and the Forever LSU campaign have announced a gift of $2 million to the university from Jerry and Nancy Dumas of Houston. The gift will provide support to the LSU College of Arts & Sciences, LSU College of Basic Sciences, Tiger Athletic Foundation and Aerospace Studies/Air Force ROTC. This gift is one of the largest in the history of the LSU College of Arts & Sciences, and the largest gift to the college since the start of the Forever LSU campaign.

This gift will have an effect on multiple initiatives within the College of Arts & Sciences, including $1.2 million toward an endowed chair in political science. This particular gift is complemented with an anticipated $800,000 match from the Louisiana Board of Regents Support Fund.

In addition, the Dumas gift will also apply a $360,000 contribution for an endowed chemistry professorship in Basic Sciences, with an anticipated $240,000 Board of Regents match; a $250,000 scholarship fund for student athletes to be administered by TAF; a $100,000 Aerospace Studies/Air Force ROTC scholarship; and $90,000 in support of the College of Arts & Sciences as a whole, through the dean’s Excellence Fund. The anticipated matches for the original $2 million gift should create a total impact of $3 million for LSU.

The Dumas gift has a unique quality: each part of this gift to LSU represents a facet of Jerry Dumas’ life, career and personal philosophy:

His four years on the LSU football team, reflected in the scholarship for student athletes.
His brother’s 30-year career in the U.S. Air Force, reflected in the scholarship for Aerospace Studies/Air Force ROTC.
Dumas’ own career in providing drilling fluids and other chemicals to the oil industry; reflected in the endowed professorship for chemistry.
Dumas’ interest in politics and the political process, reflected in the endowed professorship for political science.
Dumas’ love of learning and appreciation for the educational opportunities that LSU afforded him, reflected in his general support for the LSU College of Arts & Sciences.

“Nancy and Jerry Dumas’ generous gift to the College of Arts & Sciences is of major importance to attract and retain outstanding faculty and students to LSU,” said Dean Guillermo Ferreyra of the LSU College of Arts and Sciences. “It is the largest single gift made to date during the Forever LSU campaign to the College of Arts & Sciences, and its goal is to enable superior academic enhancements throughout the college. One portion of the gift will create an endowed chair in The Institutions of American Government, in the Department of Political Science. This chair will help us attract to LSU a scholar of national eminence who is working in this foundational area of research and teaching. Another portion of the gift will provide scholarships for students enrolled in the Air Force ROTC program. These funds will attract, support and enable us to prepare outstanding students and future leaders of the military. A third portion of the Dumas gift will support academic initiatives throughout the College of Arts & Sciences. We thank Jerry and Nancy very deeply for their generosity toward the College of Arts & Sciences and LSU. Together we will reach higher levels of academic excellence.”

The son of a production foreman with Royal Dutch Shell, Jerry Dumas Sr. was born in Kilgore, Texas, in 1935. In 1953, Jerry was recruited by Rock Reed, a backfield coach at LSU, to play football at the university. The scholarship that he and Nancy Dumas established through TAF honors one of his teammates, J.W. “Red” Brodnax, who played fullback for LSU, and was a member of LSU’s 1958 National Championship team.

In 1957, after completing his eligibility as a player and working to balance his personal life and academic career, Jerry left the university to support his family.

After LSU, Jerry went to work for Hughes Tool Company, rising through the company ranks to become group division president of the company. In 1982, his supervisor at Hughes Tool suggested that he would be in line for the position of corporate president, if he had completed his undergraduate degree. Jerry enrolled in both regular and correspondence courses at LSU, making the journey every week from Houston to Baton Rouge to attend class and finish the remaining hours on his degree program. In 1984, at the age of 49, he graduated with a degree in general studies, with a concentration in natural science.

Jerry left Hughes Tool Company shortly after graduation to take a position with Merrill Lynch. There he met Nancy Lagow, who would later become his wife.

“She’s my greatest inspiration, the best thing that has ever happened to me,” he said of his wife of seventeen years.

In 1999, Dumas and a group of investors acquired control of a small oilfield services firm, Flotek Industries, which was headquartered in Canada and traded as a “penny stock” on the Vancouver stock exchange. He incorporated the company in Delaware, and the firm began its existence as an “over-the-counter” stock. Today, Flotek is on the New York Stock Exchange and has an enterprise value of $600 million.

Jerry Dumas was named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2008 in the Houston and Gulf Coast area in June. This prestigious award honors outstanding business leaders who demonstrate innovation and personal commitment to their businesses and communities. Winning the award in this region also makes Dumas eligible for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2008 national program.

Nancy Dumas also has a history of charitable giving, and she is a founding member and current president of the board of directors of the Dora Tes Basileas Foundation, a private family foundation that supports Christian communities. This group assists Christian organizations in a variety of projects, including providing assistance to homeless women and children.

Jerry says Nancy Dumas’ influence helped him make the decision to support the LSU College of Arts & Sciences and its mission.

“This story could not be told without including her,” Jerry stressed. “She is as much a part of this as I am.”

The significance of Jerry and Nancy Dumas’ gift cannot be overstated, but Jerry Dumas recognizes that, to accomplish the mission of the LSU College of Arts & Sciences, others must also join him and Nancy in supporting the college. He invites other Arts & Sciences alumni to acknowledge all that the college has given to them by making their own contributions to the college’s success.

Support for the LSU faculty and students, such as that provided by Jerry and Nancy Dumas, is critical to the future of LSU’s university community. In response to this need, the Forever LSU Campaign was launched by LSU in 2006 with the objective of raising more than $750 million for the university by the end of the year 2010.

As of July 31, 2008, the Forever LSU campaign has raised $530,553,326 in private giving consisting of cash, pledges, in-kind gifts and planned giving. These private gifts have generated $31,600,000 (as of June 30, 2008) in state matching funds, bringing the total from all funding sources to $562,153,326.

Already, the effects of the campaign are being felt across campus: This fall, U.S. News & World Report elevated LSU into the first tier of its annual list of “Best National Universities” for the first time. Help LSU maintain its Tier 1 status among American universities by supporting the goals of the Forever LSU campaign. To learn more about how to get involved with this historic effort, visit www.foreverlsu.org.

Scott Madere is the director of public relations for the LSU Foundation. For more information on this story or the LSU Foundation, contact Madere at 225-578-3826 or e-mail him at smadere@lsufoundation.org.