PRESS RELEASE
Abilene Christian University • Abilene, Texas
Grant Rampy | Director of Public Relations
ACU Box 29010 | Abilene, Texas 79699-9010
(ofc) 325-674-2692 | (cell) 325-660-8690 | grant.rampy@acu.edu
IMPORTANT: Embargoed until 11:30 a.m. Friday, February 14, 2014
Record-setting gifts to help ACU construct
three science buildings, two stadiums
Largest gift in university history to help build science buildings, oncampus stadiums as part of $75 million initiative
ABILENE – Abilene Christian University today announced it has received $55 million
from three donors – including the largest gift in university history – to begin a series
of construction projects that will transform the campus in a way not seen for nearly
50 years.
The gifts kick off “Vision in Action,” a $75 million initiative that will result in three
new facilities for the university’s distinctive science programs and two new oncampus stadiums for its football, track and field, and soccer programs.
“Through our 21st-Century Vision, ACU promises to deliver a world-class academic
education in a Christ-centered environment where students grow in their faith and
are equipped to make a real difference in the world,” said university president Dr.
Phil Schubert. “One of the priorities of our Vision also is creating spaces to
strengthen the community aspect that makes our campus so unique. Thanks to
God’s provision through these donors, we are delivering on our promise.”
The historic gifts comprise:

$10 million from Kay Onstead of Houston, Texas, for a science building
honoring her late husband, Robert Onstead, former member of the ACU
Board of Trustees (1978-2004) and co-founder of Randalls Food Markets.
She is president of Onstead Holdings LLC and of the Robert R. and Kay M.
Onstead Foundation. Three of the couple’s children and three of their
grandchildren attended ACU. Their son, Charles, is a member of ACU’s Board
of Trustees. The gift is the sixth-largest in ACU history.

$15 million from alumni Kathy and David D. Halbert of Colleyville, Texas,
through the Caris Foundation, for a science building that also honors David’s
ACU PRESS RELEASE – “VISION IN ACTION” INITIATIVE 1
grandparents, the late Dean and Thelma Walling. Dean Walling was an ACU
trustee from 1976-83 and founding chair of the National Development
Council during Design for Development campaigns that built numerous
iconic buildings on the campus in the 1960s and ’70s. The Halberts cofounded the Caris Foundation to provide medical services to impoverished
areas of the world. David Halbert was founder of AdvancePCS, one of the
country’s largest pharmacy-benefits management companies before he sold
it in 2004. Currently, he serves as chair and CEO of Caris Life Sciences. The
Caris Foundation gift is the university’s third largest. All three of the
Halberts’ children attended ACU.

$30 million from alumni April and Mark Anthony of Dallas, Texas – the
largest gift in ACU history, topping the $26.37 million received from the
Grace L. Woodward Memorial Endowed Trust in 1998. The Anthonys’
commitment includes $15 million for construction of an on-campus football
stadium; $7 million for ACU’s College of Business Administration, where both
April and Mark studied; $5 million for a science building in honor of Robert
R. Onstead; and $3 million in undesignated funds. A member of ACU’s Board
of Trustees, April Anthony is CEO of Encompass Home Health and Homecare
Homebase, both of which she founded. Mark Anthony is senior vice president
for sales and marketing of Homecare Homebase, and is a founding board
member of the Encompass Cares Foundation, which supports worldwide
medical mission efforts. One of the Anthonys’ three children is an ACU
student.
Together, the gifts provide $30 million for a dramatic $45 million metamorphosis of
the university’s science facilities, which will comprise three buildings. The HalbertWalling Research Center and the Robert R. Onstead Center for Science and
Humanities will feature state-of-the-art laboratories, classrooms and offices
supporting research and education for departments in the sciences and humanities.
Bennett Gymnasium will be renovated into laboratory and classroom space for the
university’s fast-growing engineering program.
The Anthony gift provides $15 million toward Anthony Field at Wildcat Stadium
on Ambler Avenue; upon its opening, a full season of Wildcat football will be played
on the ACU campus for the first time since World War II. A separate project features
a new stadium on Campus Court to be shared by the university’s legendary track
and field program and its newer, though already successful, women’s soccer team.
All facilities are projected to break ground this fall, pending completion of
fundraising. They put into action the call of the university’s 21st-Century Vision,
approved by the Board of Trustees in 2008. It states that “by 2020, ACU will become
the premier university for the education of Christ-centered, global leaders,” and it
promises, among other initiatives, that ACU will “enhance or build facilities related
to the sciences” and “create additional community spaces across the campus.”
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The series of five projects – with the science buildings alone totaling more than
160,000 square feet – marks a dramatic change to the ACU campus not seen since
the late 1960s, when McGlothlin Campus Center, Moody Coliseum, Gibson Health
and Physical Education Center, and Brown Library were built, and Foster Science
Building expanded.
“We are here today as a university because generation after generation supported
the consistent mission of ACU,” April Anthony said. “We’re excited to be part of that
next generation to give back to a university that gave so much to us.”
“These donors all have a legacy connecting them to ACU,” Schubert said, “and they
are continuing that legacy by ensuring future generations of students have the
facilities they need to pursue high-quality academics within a dynamic Christian
community.”
“They are the kind of amazing people you don't come across too often in life,”
Schubert said. “They hold to unwavering standards of excellence while
demonstrating uncommon humility and graciousness. In many ways, they reflect
what we hope for every ACU graduate. I'm grateful for their friendship and for their
passion to help push the university to a new level.”
More details
The facilities will replace two long-standing structures. The site of Elmer Gray
Stadium, built in 1954, will become the site of the new football stadium, and
Chambers Hall, one of the original buildings from the campus’ 1929 construction,
will make way for the science facilities.
Bennett Gymnasium was named for L.P. and Ruth Bennett, who gave 1,600 acres of
ranch land to ACU in 1929, allowing Abilene Christian to construct what was then
the largest gym between Dallas and El Paso; it opened during the 1929-30 school
year. Bennett was an ACU trustee from 1940-56, and oil revenues from his family’s
land produced millions of dollars for the university’s endowment through the years.
Chambers Hall was named for E.D. Chambers and his wife, Julia, pioneer ranchers
in West Texas who contributed to the building’s construction and later created the
Chambers Trust. E.D. was an ACU trustee from 1929-45, and board chair from 194243. The Otto and Mattie Foster Science Building, which opened in 1946 and will
become the Onstead Center, honored Otto, a pharmacist and visionary trustee from
1921-37 who proposed that ACU sell its original campus on North 1st Street and
move to a more advantageous location. Gray Stadium’s namesake was Elmer J.
Gray, who in 1932 became the first ACU track and field athlete to compete in the U.S.
Olympic Trials.
The sciences at ACU have a long and distinguished history dating to 1927, when Dr.
Paul Witt – who later performed research that helped develop liquid sulfa drugs, the
forerunners of modern antibiotics – formed the science department.
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The American Chemical Society has named the Department of Chemistry and
Biochemistry an Approved Program for 42 consecutive years. More than 100
graduates have gone on to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry, and chemistry faculty have
published more than 80 articles in peer-reviewed journals since 1980. ACU biology
students are accepted into medical or dental school at a 90 percent rate – double the
national average. And physics students and faculty are collaborators on three of the
10 most-cited papers on hadron physics published in the past decade. In 2012, ACU
launched an engineering program, for which demand has nearly doubled
expectations.
More than 900 students currently major in at least one of the sciences represented
by these new facilities.
The new athletics facilities, meanwhile, will provide significant improvements for
student-athletes and fans of three successful intercollegiate programs.
Since the 1920s, Wildcat track and field and cross country teams have won 56 NCAA
national championships and 124 league championships, while individual studentathletes have included 37 Olympians, claimed 21 world records, and won four
Olympic gold medals. In 1999, Texas Monthly magazine named the ACU track and
field program the Texas Sports Dynasty of the Century.
ACU’s football program, meanwhile, has won national championships in 1973 and
1977, and 12 conference titles, the most recent in 2008 and 2010. Thirty-one
Wildcats have gone on to play in the NFL, including four who were on active rosters
in 2013. Football games were last played on campus at A.B. Morris Stadium from
1937-42, excepting a single game at Gray Stadium in 1958.
The soccer program, begun in 2007, won the Lone Star Conference regular season
championship in 2010 and the LSC tournament championship in 2011, while
reaching the NCAA regional tournament both seasons. The program has a sterling
.649 winning percentage since its inception.
“Both stadiums will provide our student-athletes with some of the best facilities in
which to compete and further develop their God-given talents,” said ACU athletics
director Jared Mosley. “Along with a world-class, on-campus facility for our football
team, we are excited to provide two of our most successful programs – one entering
its eighth season, the other its 10th decade – with a state-of-the-art stadium that will
better meet both of their needs.”
To learn more about “Vision for Action,” see acu.edu/vision-in-action
To learn more about ACU, see acu.edu
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