The transformational gift will fuel academic excellence and elevate campus, supporting endowed chairs, professorships and facility enhancements in the college.
An estate gift of more than $30 million from Richard E. Davis — the largest in the history of the Edward E. Whitacre Jr. College of Engineering — will transform the college’s faculty and facilities, honoring a family legacy that spans a century of service to Texas Tech University. It also sets a university record for estate giving.
Although Davis was an alumnus of the College of Arts & Sciences, he chose to use his estate to honor his family’s legacy, including his father, Lt. Gen. Waymond Austin Davis, a distinguished alumnus of the Whitacre College of Engineering (WCOE).
In keeping with Richard Davis’ wishes to advance education and research in the Whitacre College, the estate funds will establish the following endowed chair and professorship: the Richard E. Davis Endowed Chair and the Lt. Gen. W.A., Josephine, and Austin Davis Memorial Endowed Professorship.
The faculty endowments will fund research and facilitate creative scholarship and may also supplement faculty salaries. To honor his generosity, the endowed chair bears his name, and the endowed professorship honors his father, mother and brother.
“Richard Davis’ extraordinary generosity reflects a connection to Texas Tech that reaches back to our earliest days,” President Lawrence Schovanec said. “Through this historic gift, he has honored his family’s legacy while making an investment that will strengthen Texas Tech for generations. We are deeply grateful for the trust Mr. Davis placed in this university, and we are committed to honoring that trust through the opportunities his generosity will create for our faculty and students.”
Endowed chairs and professorships are among the most powerful tools a university has to Fuel Academic Excellence — attracting and retaining distinguished faculty whose teaching and research elevate the entire institution. The Davis endowments will strengthen the Whitacre College’s ability to compete for the brightest minds in engineering, with direct benefits for students, research and the university’s national reputation.
“We are incredibly grateful and humbled by this monumental gift from Richard Davis,” said Roland Faller, dean of the Whitacre College of Engineering. “This endowment gives the Whitacre College the ability to compete at the highest level, recruiting and retaining scholars and teachers who will define the next generation of engineering research and education. Richard Davis has invested in what this college can become, and we intend to honor that vision.”
Beyond the faculty investments, Richard Davis’ gift will also advance the ON&ON Campaign’s goal to Elevate Campus & Community through direct investment in the college’s academic and research facilities.
The Richard E. Davis WCOE Enhancement Endowment and the Richard E. Davis Renovation Fund will support strategic priorities within the Whitacre College of Engineering, including new construction projects, renovations and facility enhancements, as well as the recruitment and retention of top-tier faculty.
Within the Richard E. Davis Renovation Fund, $10 million will go toward matching funds for engineering facility renovations. The dollar-for-dollar match will allow donors to directly accelerate improvements to learning environments, student spaces and essential infrastructure throughout the college.
“Estate gifts like this one represent some of the most profound expressions of generosity,” said Byron Kennedy, vice president for advancement. “Richard Davis chose Texas Tech as a cornerstone of his legacy, and in doing so, he is elevating the Whitacre College of Engineering, attracting world-class faculty, building best-in-class facilities and inspiring students for generations to come. Gifts of this magnitude are exactly what propel the ON&ON Campaign forward and demonstrate what is possible when donors invest in the future of this university.”
About Richard E. Davis & Family
The Davis family’s connection to Texas Tech stretches back to the university’s earliest days. Richard Davis’ maternal grandfather, Mose Newman, was among the first to serve on what was then the Texas Technological College Board of Directors, completing a two-year term from 1925 to 1927.
Richard’s father, Lt. Gen. Davis, earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1936. Lt. Gen. Davis delivered the commencement address at the June 1967 Texas Tech graduation, and that same year, he received an honorary doctorate. His distinguished service in the United States Air Force and notable achievements in engineering earned him recognition as a Distinguished Engineer by the Whitacre College of Engineering in 1968 and the Distinguished Alumni Award from Texas Tech in 1970.
Lt. Gen. Davis modeled a spirit of philanthropy for his son. He began giving to Texas Tech in 1959 and continued to support the university faithfully until his death in 1998. He established the Mose Newman Scholarship Endowment in honor of his father-in-law, supporting students in the Whitacre College of Engineering. The scholarship still benefits students today.
It is this legacy of service, scholarship and devotion to Texas Tech that his son, Richard, chose to honor with a historic gift to Whitacre College.
Richard Davis followed his father’s path by attending Texas Tech but charted his own academic course, studying in the College of Arts & Sciences and the College of Education. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in physical education and a master’s degree in education in 1969.
In the mid-1970s, Richard moved to Belize, then a remote country where flights from the U.S. arrived once a week and much of the coastline was undeveloped. Over the next two decades, he built a life there, investing in real estate, a hotel, a ranch and a regional airline that carried travelers to the country’s offshore islands. He returned to Texas when his father became ill and settled in Sweetwater, though for years afterward he revisited Belize for months at a time.
After Lt. Gen. Davis died, Richard moved his mother, Josephine, to Sweetwater so she could be near her only sister and cared for her until her death. He then looked after his brother, Austin, who needed lifelong support; Austin died just three days before Richard’s own death on March 8, 2025. Friends describe an unassuming man — by their account the wealthiest person in his small town, yet content to drive the same Volkswagen Beetle model for decades. He was a martial artist, a scuba diver, a motorcyclist, a serious collector who rarely mentioned any of it — and a friend who could be called at any hour. Those who knew him say he never spoke ill of anyone.
“Richard’s motivation to make this gift was to honor his parents and his brother, to whom he was very devoted throughout his life,” said Rod Wetsel, a longtime friend who served as Davis’ attorney. “He wanted to do things with the money that are positive and have a lasting legacy on the students. He was really proud to have been a student at Texas Tech. I think this is a great example for a lot of folks who might be in the same situation and are trying to figure out what a good legacy would be for money they’ve accumulated. In the end, he decided this was the best way to live on in everybody’s memory as someone who tried to make a difference in other people’s lives.”
About ON&ON: The Campaign for Texas Tech University
Publicly launched in October 2024, ON&ON: The Campaign for Texas Tech University is a campaign for impact, propelling the university to new heights of excellence and global recognition while continuing to provide a world-class education for students in Texas and beyond. To date, the campaign has raised more than $1 billion thanks to the generosity of more than 93,000 donors, alumni and friends supporting the priorities of Transform Lives, Fuel Academic Excellence, Elevate Campus & Community and Build Champions.
For more information or to support ON&ON, visit ttu.edu/campaign.