President’s letter
By now I hope you have heard about the launch of our $1 billion Branding Success campaign. It is an endeavor that will transform Oklahoma State University and put much-needed resources behind our vision of becoming one of the premier modern land-grant universities in the country. It is an audacious but achievable goal. In fact, thanks once again to the enormous generosity of Boone Pickens, we are more than halfway there. We are fortunate to have Ross and Billie McKnight, two of our most accomplished and dedicated graduates, leading the campaign. Many others have already stepped up, but there is much work to do. I hope you will consider what you can do as we seek funds for students, faculty, programs and facilities. Branding Success is the perfect name for our effort. Our brand really is success at OSU. This is evident by the achievements of our faculty and students as well as the impact our graduates in every field are having around the world. You can read about many outstanding members of the OSU family in this issue of STATE, including two remarkable individuals who passed away earlier this year. We were saddened in April by the death of Ed Roberts, who is credited by many as the inventor of the personal computer. Roberts, who earned an engineering degree from OSU, hired Bill Gates and Paul Allen to create software for his device, giving the pair their start and helping launch Microsoft. Gates rushed to Ed’s bedside, and both paid their respects in his final months. OSU also lost an esteemed faculty member in March when creative writing professor Ai Ogawa died unexpectedly. She was a nationally acclaimed poet who touched the lives of her students as well as readers worldwide through her skillful handling of many difficult subjects. I hope you enjoy the many stories of OSU success (or, as I prefer, OSUccess) in the following pages. Thanks for your commitment to OSU. Go Pokes!
Burns Hargis OSU President
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