idyllic campus days gave way to summer and in the summer of 74 bill was headed to geology field camp experiences in colorado and around big bend texas for several weeks he studied all the time and then he went off to field camp and he loved it and it really impacted his life jane said and he looked like robert redford in jeremiah johnson when he came back! i felt like id died and gone to heaven! bill graduated from texas a&m in may 1975 and they got engaged that fall jane graduated in may 1976 and they married in the summer of 1977 four decades of energy exploration bill began his career in west texas as a district engineer for dowell an oil field services company where he gained invaluable field experience the interesting thing is his first job was not doing geology but those two years were when he learned a lot about hydraulic fracturing jane said in 1979 he used that valuable experience and joined an eog predecessor company as a production engineer located in sonora their family grew and jane and bill welcomed three daughters over the years bill held a number of positions with eog including district geologist and senior exploration geologist he was named senior vice president and general manager in 2004 and later executive vice president while based in fort worth in february 2011 bill spearheaded eogs drive to explore horizontal shale potential with the development of eogs barnett shale play he broke the code on the shale industry jane said eog is now widely credited as the company who pioneered the development of unconventional horizontal shale resources bill was named chairman and chief executive officer of eog resources inc in january 2014 and has now been with eog and its predecessor companies for nearly 40 years to this day he would still rather find drilling prospects than eat jane said even though hes the ceo hes still finding prospects were a team and i admire him now more than i ever have he didnt aim to be ceo he just did his very best every day investing in texas a&m students from serving in and supporting their church to financially supporting international orphan-care organizations and state-side ministries the thomas family is an inspiration to many our priorities are our faith and our family and then our work and in each of those areas we have been so blessed bill said weve been blessed with relationships and opportunities and weve always been committed to being life-long givers today the thomas family includes their three daughters and sons-in-law and six grandchildren two of their daughters graduated from texas a&m and in 2018 they started exploring what would be the best way for them to give back to texas a&m field camp was the most impactful learning tool ive ever experienced bill said so if i could do something meaningful to help preserve and enhance it then thats what i wanted to do i think a&m is a great university and a great investment and jane and i are very proud of our university and very proud to be aggies he credits geosciences dean dr debbie thomas for her inspiring leadership of the college and her focus on high-impact learning im so grateful for dean thomas leadership and her passion for the students learning experiences he said the field experience at field camp is one of the key methods of teaching and inspiring and raising up really solid strong geology students it was also the most meaningful relationship tool for faculty to mentor students and for students to develop friendships i really believe and ive talked to a lot of people about this and they all have the same story – field camp made a huge difference in their lives considering his potential positive impact on current and future aggies bill had this advice for current students: always be thankful and gracious never think too highly of yourself think of others first because ultimately we are here to serve people by leslie lee 09 to learn more about supporting high-impact learning experiences in the college of geosciences visit leadbyexampletamuedu/geosciences