 On November 2, 2007, it was announced that the College would be renamed the Mewbourne College of Earth and Energy in order to honor Curtis Mewbourne, a resident of Tyler, Texas, a 1958 OU graduate in petroleum engineering and one of the college's most prolific donors (he is the namesake for the School of Petroleum and Geological Engineering).In 1982, he had endowed the Curtis Mewbourne Professorship in Petroleum Engineering.Then he made a $6 million gift in 2000 to the School of Petroleum and Geological Engineering.