"It pleases me that there will be more construction in the curriculum now," Zachry said this week.

The civil engineering department is the largest in the country. It has 60 faculty members and four more on the way, 1,100 undergraduate students and 350 graduate students.

The endowment is designed to give those students much more training than they now get.

"Engineers are being tasked with much more than just the design of the structure," said department head David Rosowsky.

The new curriculum will enable future graduates to design a building, road or bridge; manage the project; and then certify the work.

Zachry didn't seek attention for the gift last fall, said G. Kemble Bennett, A&M vice chancellor and dean of the Dwight Look College of Engineering.

The Zachry Engineering Center, built in 1972, was named after Zachry's father, H.B. "Pat" Zachry Sr. A third generation, Bartell's son David, is joining the Civil Engineering Advisory Council.

Beginning this fall, the department will start looking for "someone of senior eminence" to fill the endowed Zachry Chair in Construction Integration and two Zachry-endowed professorships focusing on integration, Rosowsky said.

The money will support a summer elective program for surveying in the field, the Zachry Student Advising Office and scholarships that include the Zachry Distinguished Scholarship.

"Bartell spent a lot of time making sure the gift addresses all the needs he saw," Bennett said.

In recent years, San Antonio businessmen have made their mark on Texas universities.

Clear Channel Communications Chairman Lowry Mays gave $15 million to his namesake business school at A&M auto dealer B.J. "Red" McCombs gave $50 million to the University of Texas at Austin business school that bears his name; and Valero Chairman Bill Greehey gave $25 million to St. Mary's University for the Bill Greehey School of Business.

Travis E. Poling
Express-News Business Writer

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