Bulldog network keeps Maroon on alumnus’ mind
June 21, 2013
The son of a football coach, Tommy Nusz called many places home during his formative years: Texas, Michigan and Virginia just to name a few. But it was the years spent in Starkville, while his dad served as an assistant under Mississippi State coach Charley Shira, that made a lasting impression.
“We were in Texas my senior year of high school and our neighbor worked in the oil industry. He really piqued my interest petroleum engineering,” Nusz recalled. “I strongly considered different schools, but Mississippi State felt like home ground for me.”
Nusz said moving from place to place in his youth helped make him adaptable, which combined with the education he received at State, prepared him for a career in the petroleum industry.
Following his 1982 graduation he started work for Superior Oil in Midland, Texas, with fellow alumnus Bob Harrell. Later, he moved to Burlington Resources Inc. where he worked his way up the ranks to a position as vice president. Currently, he is president and CEO of Oasis Petroleum.
Nusz said his adaptability has served him well as work has taken him to Europe, Asia, north Africa, South America, and Asia. But he said it was the network of Bulldog Engineers threaded throughout corporate America that served his ties to the university.
When I was younger, I was connected because I still knew people in the department. In the middle, we all get preoccupied with kids and careers, so it’s harder to keep up. But then I found my self working with other alumni, like Bobby Shackouls,” Nusz confessed. “They helped me get reconnected and my involvement escalated from there.
In 2002, Nusz was named an alumni fellow by the Bagley College of Engineering and he is currently in his third year on the board of the alumni foundation. He has built a reputation on giving back to the university, including his most recent gift through the StatePride initiative, which endowed a professorship in the Dave C. Swalm School of Chemical Engineering.
“I’ve been very fortunate to have the capacity to be supportive and help the college meet its needs,” Nusz said. “The college recognizes that professorships are important for helping attract, retain and develop our faculty.”
Associate Professor Hossein Toghiani is the inaugural recipient of the professorship. The position enables him to advance his materials and energy research, and enhance his award-winning teaching efforts that will help produce the next generation of Bulldog Engineers.
And when today’s students begin their careers and find themselves spread across the world, Nusz knows the network that kept Maroon on his mind, will be there to bring them home again, too.
“We have young alumni working with us at Oasis and I do what I can to keep them connected,” Nusz said.