T. Boone Pickens Bio, Wiki, Age, Wife (Toni Chapman Brinker), Children, Cause of Death, Net Worth, Family, Health and Foundation
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T. Boone Pickens Biography – T. Boone Pickens Wiki
T. Boone Pickens born Thomas Boone Pickens Jr., was an American capitalist. Born on May 22, 1928, in Holdenville, a small town in eastern Oklahoma, Pickens’ 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.
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 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, often one of America’s most successful hedge funds primarily focused on oil and gas commodities and energy-dependent equities.
T. Boone Pickens Donation Oklahoma State University
He was among the most generous collegiate philanthropists of all time, contributing more than $500 million to his alma mater, Oklahoma State University (almost evenly divided between academics and athletics, at the institution where the football stadium bears his name). The support for OSU prompted Texas A&M’s 12th Man Magazine to include A&M’s decision not to renew Pickens’ $25-a-month basketball scholarship as one of the top 10 mistakes in Aggie history.
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.
T. Boone Pickens Awards
Pickens received a host of awards and recognition during his career:
In 2003, Pickens was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame. In 2003, Pickens was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame. In 2005, Pickens was inducted into the Texas Business Hall of Fame. In 2006, Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans inducted Pickens into its ranks.
In 2008, he received the Distinguished American Award from the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame for his contributions to amateur football in the United States. He also was honored with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars of the Smithsonian Institution Award for Corporate Citizenship.
In 2009, Time 100 ranked Pickens in the top quarter of its world’s 100 most influential people list. That same year, in recognition of his efforts and far-reaching philanthropy, the 43rd annual Texas Legislative Conference named him “Texan of the Year” and the prestigious Franklin Institute named Pickens its Bower Award for Business Leadership winner.
In 2010, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society presented Pickens with its Patriot Award. That year, the Oklahoma State Legislature declared May 13 “Boone Pickens Appreciation Day” in Oklahoma.
In 2011, the American Football Coaches Foundation named him its CEO Coach of the Year. In 2012, he received the SEAL Legacy Award for a “lifetime of unwavering commitment to the Armed Forces.” In 2013, DCEO magazine named him its CEO of the Year. In 2017, Forbes magazine named him among its 100 “Greatest Living Business Minds” to mark the magazine’s 100th anniversary.
In 2018, the Maguire Energy Institute at SMU Cox School of Business awarded him with its Maguire Energy Institute Pioneer Award; D CEO magazine awarded him with its Oil and Gas Awards program’s Lifetime Achievement Award; the Great Investors’ Best Ideas Foundation honored him with its Edward W. “Rusty” Rose Award for his efforts to bring truth and transparency to public securities markets; and the Center for Security Policy presented him with its “Terry Elkes Sacred Honor Award,” recognizing public-spirited leadership in the private sector and philanthropy.
T. Boone Pickens Age
T. Boone Pickens was born on May 22, 1928 in Holdenville, Oklahoma. He died on September 11, 2019. He was 91 years old.
T. Boone Pickens Wives – T. Boone Pickens Spouse, Wife
Pickens had five wives. He was married to Lynn O’Brien from 1949-1971; he also had his four biological children with her. Then he married Beatrice Carr and adopted her daughter; they were married from 1972-1998. Then he married Nelda Cain from 2000-2004; shortly after, he married Madeleine Pickens and they were married until 2012. Pickens married his fifth and final wife, Toni Chapman Brinker, in 2014. They divorced in 2017.
T. Boone Pickens Children
Pickens had five children; Deborah Pickens Stovall, Pam Pickens Grace, Michael Pickens, Tom Pickens and Liz Pickens Cordia
T. Boone Pickens Death
Pickens died on September 11, 2019 at the age of 91 at his home in Dallas surrounded by friends and family.
He is survived by his five children — Deborah Pickens Stovall, Pam Pickens Grace, Michael Pickens, Tom Pickens and Liz Pickens Cordia — and 11 grandchildren and an increasing number of great-grandchildren.
T. Boone Pickens Cause of Death – How Did T. Boone Pickens Die
According to spokesman Jay Rosser, T. Boone Pickens’ cause of death was natural causes.
T. Boone Pickens Health
Pickens had battled back from a series of strokes and further head injuries sustained in a 2017 fall.
T. Boone Pickens Net Worth
T. Boone Pickens’ net worth is estimated to be $500 million.
T. Boone Pickens Foundation
The T. Boone Pickens Foundation, established in 2006, focuses its philanthropy on health and medical research, treatment and services; entrepreneurship; kids at risk; education and athletics, with a particular focus on his alma mater, Oklahoma State University; corporate health and fitness; and conservation and wildlife management.
