COLLEGE STATION - The Reta and Bill Haynes ’46 Coastal Engineering Laboratory will be formally dedicated Wednesday (June 4) in the Texas A&M University Research Park. The $5.38 million, 25,000-square-foot facility brings both ocean and estuarine environments into a laboratory setting where educators and researchers can tackle the most challenging problems of near-shore and estuarine regions. The laboratory is named for donors Bill and Reta Haynes of Marinwood, Calif. He is a retired chairman of Chevron and a member of the Texas A&M Class of 1946. Other founding contributors are Red and Yvonne Adams of Morgan City, La., Ray and Dorothy Galvin of Houston, the Herman F. Heep and Minnie Bell Heep Texas A&M University Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Texas Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) and The Zachry Foundation. "This facility is a premier resource for solving challenges that affect our natural resources and certainly our state and national economy. We thank these contributors for their support and for the future benefit that will result from research conducted here," said Dr. G. Kemble Bennett, vice chancellor and dean of engineering, and TEES director. Two major components of the laboratory are a shallow-water wave and current basin (120 feet long, 75 feet wide, 4 feet deep) and a tow/dredge tank (150 feet long, 12 feet wide, 10 feet deep) with a large sediment pit and current. An observation well provides underwater viewing for both. Harold J. (Bill) Haynes and his wife, Reta, have a longstanding record of generous support for Texas A&M University. Their previous gifts have included two President’s Endowed Scholarships and two faculty chairs in the College of Geosciences. Born in Fort Worth, Haynes entered the U.S. Navy in 1944. A year later he married his hometown sweetheart who was a student at Texas Christian University. After World War II, the couple moved to College Station where he graduated with a degree in civil engineering. Haynes credits much of his success to his wife, a great partner in life who has been a homemaker, mother of their three daughters and grandmother of their six grandchildren. Haynes enjoyed a distinguished career in industry, beginning as an engineer with Standard Oil Company of California (now ChevronTexaco Corporation) and rising to become president, then chairman of the board and chief executive officer of what is now the second largest oil company in the United States. Retiring from Chevron in 1981, he served as a consultant to the executive management of the Bechtel group of companies. He is a former director of Citicorp-Citibank, Hewlett Packard, The Boeing Company, The Rand Corporation, Weyerhaeuser, PACCAR Inc. and the Saudi Arabian Company (Saudi Aramco). In 1972, Haynes was named a Distinguished Alumnus of Texas A&M. In 1978, he received the university’s first Geosciences and Earth Resources Medal for Distinguished Achievement. In 2000, he was honored as a Distinguished Graduate of the Department of Civil Engineering. B. A. "Red" Adams is chairman of the board of Oil and Gas Rental Services, which he co-founded in 1967. The company is a leading supplier for the rental of drilling equipment in the Gulf of Mexico for major oil companies and independent operators. Raymond E. Galvin, Texas A&M Class of 1953, is a retired president of Chevron USA Production and a past member of the Chevron board of directors. A longtime supporter of Texas A&M, he is a co-chair of the engineering college’s fundraising effort in Texas A&M’s One Spirit One Vision Campaign. The Herman F. Heep and Minnie Belle Heep Texas A&M University Foundation was chartered in 1986 to provide financial support to Texas A&M and its agriculture and engineering programs. The National Science Foundation is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering, reaching all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 universities and institutions. The Texas Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) is a partnership of communities, industry and institutions that work together to solve problems and promote economic development across Texas. TEES is the engineering research agency of the State of Texas and a member of The Texas A&M University System. The Zachry Foundation is affiliated with the Zachry Group Inc, a collection of companies that started with the H.B. Zachry Company, founded in 1924 by H.B. "Pat" Zachry, Texas A&M Class of 1922. The Zachry family has a long and distinguished record of support and service to the university.
