Published: October 23, 2009 09:51 pm      

OSU regents OK naming $70M facility for Bellmon

OKLAHOMA CITY — The regents who govern Oklahoma State University approved a plan Friday to name a $70 million science research building on the Stillwater campus after former Gov. Henry Bellmon.

The vote by the OSU/A&M Board of Regents, who met in Miami, means the 124,000-square-foot facility under construction will be known as the Henry Bellmon Research Center. Bellmon, who served two nonconsecutive terms as Oklahoma's governor as well as two terms in the U.S. Senate, died Sept. 29 at age 88.

Bellmon graduated from what then was known as Oklahoma A&M in 1942. He became the state's first Republican governor in 1962, then served as national chairman of the Nixon for President campaign in 1967. He won a Senate seat in 1968 and in 1974, and was again elected governor in 1986.

OSU President Burns Hargis, who called Bellmon "a great statesman, a proud Cowboy and a personal mentor of mine," said Bellmon was instrumental in establishing state support for research in Oklahoma and at OSU.

"I said at Henry's funeral it was my hope that before I left this office we will have named a significant facility for Henry Bellmon," Hargis said. "I just didn't think it would happen this fast.

"He was clearly one of our most distinguished graduates. It was a given we would name something after Henry. This is just ready to name and it's a very significant facility, so all the stars just all lined up."

The research building — the single-largest project of the Oklahoma Higher Education Capital Bond Program, which was signed into law by Gov. Brad Henry in 2005 — will include custom-designed facilities for research in biodiversity, biophysics, photonics, synthetic chemistry and advanced materials. It is expected to open during the fall of 2010.

"Gov. Bellmon, I think, would be proud his name will be on a building that will be so instrumental to the advancement of research at his alma mater," said Stephen McKeever, OSU's vice president of research and technology transfer.

In other business, Hargis said Rick Darnaby, who has led global businesses including The NutraSweet Co., Motorola Inc. in Europe and Monsanto Canada Inc., will speak at OSU's commencement ceremony on Dec. 12 in Stillwater.