Single largest gift to Tech.

Dr. Gordon Davis

When I reflect on my career path, the single greatest influencer was Dr. Gary Smith. When he left Washington State and came to Texas A&M, Gordon Davis followed and received his M.S. and Ph.D. under Dr. Smith's guidance.

I've never met Gordon Davis, but I heard a lot about him when I was a Grad Student in the early 80's. Obviously he made a significant impact at Tech, and this news shocked me. I knew he left academia years ago do his own thing, but never realized he amassed this type of wealth.

Good for him, and as the father of two Tech graduates, good for Tech.

He's been and continues to be a huge financial supporter of their department. No doubt he's been a generous supporter of ag over the years, but I've always wondered why he chooses to support the college he was on staff at (Tech) over his alma matter.

GW is a great guy and became VERY successful in business. Built up a good company and sold it. He also recently gave $1 million to A&M to help establish a professorship in Gary Smith's name.

No offense man, but I fail to see why we would be happy for Tech.

Meat Judging NCs don't win themselves.

Genuinely curious, and not trying to be snide. But have we reached a real point of diminishing returns when it come to "meat science"?

How much more efficiencies and improvements are there to gain in this field? Genetics, feed conversions, etc over the past few decades have been great. But I'd the juice still worth the investment squeeze?

aggie_2010 said:

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He's been and continues to be a huge financial supporter of their department. No doubt he's been a generous supporter of ag over the years, but I've always wondered why he chooses to support the college he was on staff at (Tech) over his alma matter.

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My father has been in academia since the early 80s and I would venture to guess that he grew closer in his relationships post-grad at the universities which he's served vs NC State/VA Tech where he received his degrees.

AgLA06 said:

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No offense man, but I fail to see why we would be happy for Tech.

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You should be happy for your fellow man. Unless they are in Austin...

AgLA06 said:

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No offense man, but I fail to see why we would be happy for Tech.

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It is good for the state to have tech increase it's academic standing. Especially in areas that are natural for a west texas school.

Need to start recruiting 5 star meat judging talent here on campus.

bkag9824 said:

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Genuinely curious, and not trying to be snide. But have we reached a real point of diminishing returns when it come to "meat science"?

How much more efficiencies and improvements are there to gain in this field? Genetics, feed conversions, etc over the past few decades have been great. But I'd the juice still worth the investment squeeze?

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I feel like this could have been said many times throughout history for a myriad of fields where groundbreaking discoveries were later made.

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How much more efficiencies and improvements are there to gain in this field?

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Great question bk...

Not to derail this thread, but in my opinion, the industry has regressed in one key area...live slaughter weights. Try to find a 12-14 lb. Choice lip on Ribeye at Costco or Sam's. 30 years ago that was the norm. Now, live weights are 250 pounds greater than what they were, and an average lip on weighs 17-18 pounds. Today, one can't serve a 'thick' 1.5 inch steak that doesn't weigh a pound or more.

Pretty much the same with chicken. 5 pound live weight produces a normal sized portioned breast. Today the birds are enormous and the breast meat is abnormally large.

I get it though...the fixed costs of production, slaughter, and processing favor larger live weights.

Just my random thought...if the processors would market sub-primals the way they used to be 30 years ago...creating high quality, smaller portioned-size product, and charge a premium price, they'd find a market ready to be their end-user.

Curious what company he started and how he amassed such a fortune.

You wouldn't believe the amount of food/meat science work behind every meat item at your supermarket or those used at your favorite restaurants. If you eat any kind of food in a first world country programs like food/meat science are essential.

From the linked article in the OP:

Recognizing a need for enhanced instructional material, in 1984 Davis entered the entrepreneurial world and established CEV Multimedia, which started out producing multimedia textbooks for curricula. Today, iCEV develops online curricula, instructional materials and certification testing in Career & Technical Education (CTE) for agricultural sciences; architecture, construction, transportation and manufacturing; business, marketing, finance, information technology and media; career exploration; family and consumer sciences; health science; law, public safety, correction and security; and science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

Because I'm the father of two daughters that went to Tech that didn't deliver pizza after graduation and make 6 figure salaries in their respective fields.

Charlie Murphy said:

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Need to start recruiting 5 star meat judging talent here on campus.

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Your user name is very appropriate for the topic. A professor named Charley Murphey coached the very first TAMU meat judging team. I think it was in 1941, but not certain.

Also, TAMU did beat Tech in winning the National Western meats contest last weekend.

edit: the first Texas A&M meats team was in 1938 and it was coached by Mr. Murphey.

AgLA06 said:

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No offense man, but I fail to see why we would be happy for Tech.

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10 years ago I would agree with you. However, tceh is no longer the thorn in our side they were in the era between RC and Sherman. Nor will they likely be one again. Tadlock has built a helluva baseball program there but us hiring Schloss should negate that too. Same for their basketball program, especially since they lost Beard to tu.

Once I despised them, largely because we underachieved and they overachieved. Frequently at our expense. However, these days I don't much care about them anymore and if they can improve themselves it will generally be at the expense of tu and OU, as well as, purple baylol and baylol.

I'd forgotten about Charley Murphy. He finished out his years in the Meat Science Department when I was there in 1980-81. One thing I'll always remember about him...in taste panels using the 9 point Hedonic scale he never thought an item should receive a 9.

I was just a little behind you. I arrived in 1984.

aggie_2010 said:

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You wouldn't believe the amount of food/meat science work behind every meat item at your supermarket or those used at your favorite restaurants. If you eat any kind of food in a first world country programs like food/meat science are essential.

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I have a BS in Ag Bus, and took classes in the wide gamut of livestock (animal science and a meat science specifically). I'm not completely ignorant to the subject, but what I am ignorant to is what's being studied/pursued with these investments.

I get the basic point of investing in academia to keep facilities up to date/maintained, student enrichment programs, etc.

However, as mentioned above by another poster, portion sizes have absolutely ballooned, not necessarily to the betterment of quality. En masse, quality and efficiency of inputs have significantly improved over the past few decades. But do you think a massive ass chicken breast tastes any better than a smaller one? I don't, as I often find the larger breasts to be a bit more spongy (yes, there are direct similarities to the wonderful human female form).

-power belly, I agree and that's why I pose the question. What is left to "discover". Do meat/forage scientists think there significant improvements available? What are they?

I'll give an example of real world research that was done without massive donations to academia. Go read "Dirt to Soil" by Gabe Brown. His story isn't so much about meat science, more so pasture management, but the point I'm making is the same. He didn't need millions donated to him to figure this stuff out on his own. Maybe he would have fewer hurdles in pursuit of his learnings had he gone to college? I dunno. His son went to college, not for meat/pasture management if I recall, and it has paid dividends for them.

Certainly a place for higher learning academia, but I think we can all agree that the opportunity cost to pursue a bachelors these days becomes harder and harder to justify.

Wow…there went a post about what meat science is developing into a "higher academia has a **** ROI". My bad. Carry on with wishing for 5* meat judges.

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power belly, I agree and that's why I pose the question. What is left to "discover". Do meat/forage scientists think there significant improvements available? What are they?

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Hard to say since there's no way to know what we don't yet know. The big buckets of interest are food safety, shelf-life/food waste, and food quality. Who knows what discoveries are in front of us. No one knows.

jh88ag said:

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Charlie Murphy said:

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Need to start recruiting 5 star meat judging talent here on campus.

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Your user name is very appropriate for the topic. A professor named Charley Murphey coached the very first TAMU meat judging team. I think it was in 1941, but not certain.

Also, TAMU did beat Tech in winning the National Western meats contest last weekend.

edit: the first Texas A&M meats team was in 1938 and it was coached by Mr. Murphey.

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wareagle044 said:

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aggie_2010 said:

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He's been and continues to be a huge financial supporter of their department. No doubt he's been a generous supporter of ag over the years, but I've always wondered why he chooses to support the college he was on staff at (Tech) over his alma matter.

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My father has been in academia since the early 80s and I would venture to guess that he grew closer in his relationships post-grad at the universities which he's served vs NC State/VA Tech where he received his degrees.

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With that kind of investment he's probably looking at the impact he can make with it as well. I'd imagine 44 million will go further to moving Tech forward than what it would do at A&M. Also the direction of the Universities are heading could factor in as well

aggie_2010 said:

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He's been and continues to be a huge financial supporter of their department. No doubt he's been a generous supporter of ag over the years, but I've always wondered why he chooses to support the college he was on staff at (Tech) over his alma matter.

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His undergrad came from Washington State. M.S. and Ph.D. from A&M.

Looks like his money came from an e-learning company he started. E-learning has probably been very profitable in the Covid world.

Respect his decision.

Thanks for posting. My dad '40 was on the meats team. Cool to see his name in the article.

What business(es) was he in?

That's awesome! My major professor was Robert Terrell. He went back into industry as he was a bit of a renegade. Of course, Gary Smith and Jeff Savell were there as well. I got my Masters in Processed Meats. Hind sight, I should have taken some time off and come back for a Ph.D. But no regrets as I've had a pretty good career. What about you?

iCEV>>>>IMS

Got my MS with Savell and Rhonda Miller and PhD with Savell. Most of my work was in beef quality and cutability. Spent a couple of years coaching the meats judging team.

El Chupacabra said:

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Meat Judging NCs don't win themselves.

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Can't wait for the meat judging NIL money to start flowing.

Sustainability is a cornerstone to research going forward.

Got amazing genetics, streamlined processes, and great nutrition. Great!

Now maintain that with 20-30% less resources from the corn and grass you grow, the energy to run the processing plant, and the inputs needed for feedlots.

No rest for agriculture.

While I would have loved for A&M to get the money, it sounds like the guy made a life at Tech and then in Lubbock, so good for him for supporting his home.

If folks would read the attached article, they could learn where he made his money.

They would also learn that he gave nearly $4 million to our system school, WTAMU, to endow two chairs in their Ag department