Students Max Munyan (left) and Caleb Pachel, from UW’s Department of Civil and
Architectural Engineering and Construction Management, test a concrete slump at UW’s
High Bay Research Facility. The concrete laboratory demonstration is used in industry
to determine the consistency and workability of fresh concrete. A gift from retired
Shell engineer and executive Tom Botts and his wife, Shelley, establishes the Thomas
and Shelley Botts Department Head in Civil Engineering. (UW Photo)
A gift from retired Shell engineer and executive Tom Botts and his wife, Shelley,
to the University of Wyoming supports the head of the Department of Civil and Architectural
Engineering and Construction Management in the College of Engineering and Physical
Sciences. This gift was matched by the UW Foundation.
“Shelley and I are very proud of our Wyoming roots and what the University of Wyoming
has given us,” Botts says. “My civil engineering education at UW enabled me to succeed
in a very competitive industry and have the confidence to succeed in whatever job
I was in. We are pleased to give back to UW.”
This gift establishes the Thomas and Shelley Botts Department Head in Civil Engineering.
The purpose of this endowed position is to recruit and retain a strong department
head by garnering the attention of nationally recognized scholars or industry leaders.
It provides a flexible source of funding that can be used to foster excellence in
the department and provide support for departmental needs and special initiatives.
“The university is deeply honored by Tom and Shelley’s generous and transformational
gift,” UW President Ed Seidel says. “The Thomas and Shelley Botts Department Head
in Civil Engineering will enable UW to attract the best and brightest to lead the
department, ultimately enhancing our students’ success and ability to serve the state
of Wyoming.”
“Tom and Shelly have been steadfast supporters of UW for many years and in many dimensions,”
UW Provost Kevin Carman says. “Their extraordinary gift in support of the Department
of Civil and Architectural Engineering and Construction Management is a wonderful
capstone to their generosity. It will assure that the department has strong leadership
and critical resources to fulfill its mission. I’m hopeful that Tom and Shelley’s
gift will inspire other successful alumni to make similar investments into the future
of UW.”
UW’s Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering and Construction Management
teaches future engineers and construction managers the theoretical and practical expertise
they need in their fields.
“What a tremendous show of support,” says Anthony Denzer, head of the Department of
Civil and Architectural Engineering and Construction Management. “This gift is a ringing
endorsement of the outstanding programs we offer, and it reflects the great work of
my team. Civil engineering is central to the quality of life we enjoy and the challenges
we face in the future -- thank you to Tom and Shelley for recognizing that and investing
in our vision.”
The department teaches civil engineering students about infrastructure and urban and
rural land development in preparation to become professional engineers, and department
faculty members work on cutting-edge subjects such as intelligent transportation systems
and carbon capture and storage.
Civil engineers work in rural and urban areas designing roads and bridges, municipal
water systems, sewer systems, wastewater treatment plants, dams, irrigation channels,
excavations, slope-stability projects and much more.
Within the department, the architectural engineering program prepares students to
design building systems in preparation to become professional engineers -- although
this is not an architecture degree. The program has a strong reputation for building
information modeling, which is the 3D computer modeling of building systems and simulated
building performance.
Faculty strengths include structural engineering and heating, ventilation and air
conditioning (HVAC) with a focus on energy-efficient systems. The program also offers
a summer study-abroad program in Europe.
Finally, the department’s construction management program is a new program, with its
first graduating class in 2022. Construction management is an up-and-coming occupation
that is growing at a faster rate than any other occupation in the United States.
Demand for construction managers comes from the increasing complexity of new buildings
and industrial construction, as well as a projected increase in retirements of current
construction managers. This program prepares a future workforce capable of competing
in and driving technological advancements in construction industries.
“Part of the calculus about the gift is our confidence in the leadership and the direction
of the university and the university foundation,” Botts says. “That’s an important
aspect -- especially in the last five years, there have been just tremendous things
happening at the university that we want to be involved in.”
Tom and Shelley both grew up in Wyoming -- Tom on his family’s ranch near Riverton.
Living and working throughout the world, they raised three children and now have four
grandchildren. They have now returned to the state, retiring to Jackson.
Both Tom and Shelley went to UW.
“I have a soft spot in my heart for the education and the professors I had back in
civil engineering,” he says. “They all prepared me very well.”
Tom earned his civil engineering degree from UW in 1977 and, two weeks later, he and
Shelley married. Shelley later earned her law degree. Together, they embarked on careers
in the energy industry in California, Texas, England, Scotland and the Netherlands.
Right out of college, Shell hired Tom as a production engineer, and he stayed with
the company his entire 36-year career.
Botts served as division operations manager responsible for onshore upstream operations
in the western half of the U.S., and later he assumed responsibility for both engineering
and operations as division production manager. Then he was appointed treasurer of
Shell Oil Co.
The Bottses moved to London and then on to Scotland, where Tom held positions as the
first American U.K. gas director, U.K. oil director and U.K. managing director. They
then moved to the Netherlands, and he became executive vice president for exploration
and production Europe. He was named executive vice president of Global Manufacturing
Royal Dutch Shell in 2009. In that role, Botts led a team of 30,000 employees and
contractors at 30 refineries and petrochemical sites around the world. He retired
in 2012.
Botts’ career moved from engineer to team leader to treasurer to managing director
to executive vice president-- from engineering to operations to management.
“You can ask me whatever you want done, and I’ll go figure it out,” Botts says. “Where
did all that come from? I think it came, in large part, from the University of Wyoming
civil engineering department.”
Throughout, Botts has stayed very involved with the state and its university. He is
a member of the UW Foundation Board of Directors, formerly serving as chair, and,
in 2012, he was appointed by Gov. Matt Mead to the Wyoming Governor’s Energy, Engineering
and STEM Integration Task Force and co-chaired the Tier-1 Engineering Initiative.
He also has served as director of the Energy Resources Council for UW’s School of
Energy Resources.
Previously, the Bottses established the Thomas and Shelley Botts Endowed Chair in
Unconventional Reservoirs, which supports faculty who work on domestic and international
research in the area of petroleum reservoirs from shale, coal, tight-sand and oil-sand.
That research takes place in the state-of-the-art High Bay Research Facility.
“We’ve stayed really involved,” Botts says. “I think that my involvement with the
foundation has helped me see where the needs are.”
He asks himself and others: “How do you want to pay it forward? How do you want to
get involved -- not just passively.”
“Tom and Shelley have made invaluable contributions to our UW community,” says John
Stark, UW Foundation president and CEO. “Their philanthropy has supported engineering
faculty in so many ways, and we are so fortunate to be able to incorporate Tom’s extensive
professional expertise into the future direction of engineering and the university.”
This gift is part of a major institutional fundraising priority of UW -- faculty excellence,
as faculty are the bedrock of the institution and student success. Institutional fundraising
priorities guide UW private giving on those things that are most important to Wyoming’s
university and allow UW’s supporters to connect with those areas they are most passionate
about.
