40 million naming gift to college from Louise Dilworth Davis
Texas Christian University’s second biggest college has a new name: the Louise Dilworth Davis College of Science & Engineering. A $40 million gift from the 1977 alumna will support the college’s strategic plan and operations in perpetuity and will also endow the college’s deanship, the Louise Dilworth Davis Dean.
“It gives me immense joy to support TCU’s next chapter of growth and serving students,” Davis said.
“As an alum and mother of a Horned Frog who works as a scientist today, I want to ensure future generations of support for the university while celebrating Chancellor Daniel Pullin’s leadership, his Values in Action Strategic Plan and Dean Dwayne McCay’s strategic priorities for the TCU College of Science & Engineering.
Together, we are shaping an exciting future for TCU and enhancing research excellence for students, faculty, and staff.”
This will be a critical component to the university’s quest to obtain a Research 1 designation from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. TCU’s Strategic Plan places research, scholarship & creative activities as one of its four pillars.
“Her inspired gift is a legacy that will power real change in the world as well as TCU’s community and ambitious strategic plan,” Pullin said. “I am personally humbled by the timing of this gift with Values in Action Week, and I can think of no better way to show ‘values in action’ than to invest so meaningfully in our students.”
Such gifts support students through scholarship, technology, research, and the attraction and retention of top faculty.
“Mrs. Davis’s gift sends a powerful message to the TCU community that our academic experience, the quality of our students, and the excellence of our teaching and scholarly pursuits are second to none,” Floyd Wormley Jr., provost and vice chancellor of Academic Affairs, said.
“This investment by a TCU alumna and Horned Frog family in the College of Science & Engineering accelerates undergraduate and graduate research and investment in professions like engineering, computer sciences, pre-health pathways, and other areas of growth for TCU. With this gift, our mission for education, innovation, and service has an even stronger trajectory into the future.”
The Davis College of Science & Engineering includes 39 areas of study, including several renowned centers and institutes, such as the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development, the Institute of Behavioral Research, the Institute of Ranch Management, the Institute of Environmental Studies, and the Monnig Meteorite Gallery.
The Pre-Health Professions Institute boasts a 96% acceptance rate among its students into medical school, which is twice the national average. This is due in part to the fact that more than half of the college’s undergraduate students are involved in undergraduate research.
“Seldom does one individual have the opportunity to transform thousands of lives through a single act of generosity and vision, yet Louise Davis has done precisely that for current and future TCU scientists and engineers,” McCay, the interim dean, said. “Her extraordinary gift to the TCU College of Science & Engineering will propel the college from good to great, enriching the education of our graduates and yielding benefits for Texas, the United States, and the world for generations to come.”
From San Antonio, Davis is a fifth-generation Texan and a longstanding member of the South Texas community with ties to oil and gas, banking, and ranching.
While she was a criminal justice major, her son, Eric, graduated from TCU in 2014 as a double major in physics and mathematics and an Andrews Scholar of the John V. Roach Honors College.
He met his wife, Anastasiia, a fellow scientist, at TCU, where she was completing her Ph.D. in physics the same year. Today, Eric Davis is a member of the college’s external advisory board.