El Paso businessman Paul L. Foster gives $35 million to Baylor University

Baylor University announced today that the Paul L. Foster, of El Paso, has donated $35 million to the university.

Foster is a 1979 alum of Baylor. The $35 million will go toward the university’s $100 million campaign to build a new 275,000-square foot facility – to be named the Paul L. Foster Campus for Business and Innovation – which will house Baylor’s Hankamer School of Business.

Foster’s gift also will support Baylor Stadium – the University’s football stadium currently under construction on campus – at the Founders level.

“My family and I believe strongly that we have an obligation to give back to the people, the organizations and the communities that have given so much to us,” Foster said in a statement. “Like so many other graduates, the education I received at Baylor prepared me for personal and professional success. That’s why Alejandra and I couldn’t be more pleased to come alongside the University to support the new building for Baylor’s Hankamer School of Business, which will provide a transformational and innovative education for Baylor business students, and Baylor Stadium, which will benefit the University and the Waco community for generations to come.”

Foster gave $50 million to Texas Tech University for the medical school in El Paso, the first four-year medical school on the border. He became the single largest donor in Texas Tech history with the gift, and the school was renamed after him: Paul L. Foster School of Medicine at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center at El Paso. The first class of four-year medical students entered the university in 2009.

Foster also gave $3 million to the University of Texas at El Paso for its newest basketball facility, which is named for both him and follow donors Jeff and Sharon Stevens:Foster Stevens Basketball Center. It opened in April 2009.

Foster serves as chairman of the board and executive chairman of Western Refining Inc.