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UTPB alum donates 250 mineral samples to Geosciences department, to be installed next month

"Students from UT Permian Basin are going to benefit from his lifelong collection," Guy McCrary, CEO of Permian Basin Area Foundation said.

ODESSA, Texas — It was about 2 years ago that Bill Decker, a UTPB alum from 1983 first started talking about donating his extensive mineral collection to the university.

"He and I were visiting one day over lunch and he was talking about his desire to find a proper home for his very extensive collection of minerals," Guy McCrary, CEO of Permian Basin Area Foundation said.

And today, that dream is becoming rock solid.

As empty display cases are making their way into the geosciences building to be filled.

Bill has had a fondness for collecting these crystals since he was a young boy.

So this collection is 60 years in the making.

He'd find them in mine dumps or on family vacations.

"Started buying some and trading some and swapping stuff," Bill Decker, UTPB mineral donor said.

Now, it's a stash of 250 samples.

And they've been boxed in his garage for years, just waiting to find a home where they could shine.

"We do have a good mineral collection, but it's not in that magnitude and it's not that level. This collection contains museum-type samples," Mohamed Zobaa, UTPB graduate program head of the geology department said.

Decker simply hopes this collection uncovers...

"A love for science," Decker said.

"Science is cumulative, so the more specimens and samples our students see, the more experience they will have," Zobaa said. 

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University employees from the geosciences department said they are hoping to have the full collection installed by mid October 2020.

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