
Former U.S. Defense Secretary and previous Texas A&M University President Robert Gates and his wife Becky committed a $1.5 million estate gift to the Texas A&M Foundation to support the early childhood center on campus named in her honor.

SuSu and Mark Fischer ’72 give $12 million toward construction of a new Engineering Education Complex, set to open in fall 2018. The 525,000-square-foot facility, dedicated to undergraduate engineering education, will be the largest academic building on campus. Construction is later supplemented by other multimillion-dollar gifts, including $10 million from Amy ’84 and Tim Leach ’82 and $15 million from the Zachry Group to name the facility the Zachry Engineering Education Complex. More than $65 million has been raised toward the project thus far.

Mary-Ann and Tom Ferguson ’78 see Aggies as leaders of tomorrow, and they want to play a part in cultivating that leadership by providing students with international business and engineering experience. In addition to their existing gifts in support of this goal, the Fort Worth couple created a multimillion-dollar bequest in a revocable living trust that will support Texas A&M’s industrial distribution program after their lifetimes.