Kelcy Warren’s Donations Helped Create Dallas’s Klyde Warren Park

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A 5.2-acre green space now reconnects uptown and downtown Dallas, and Kelcy Warren helped make it possible. Kelcy Warren founder and executive chairman of Energy Transfer donated $10 million in 2012, a gift that proved instrumental in creating Klyde Warren Park.

The park has since become a beloved gathering place for the city. Its value comes from location as much as size: it links two busy districts that people can now move between on foot through open lawn and public space.

Funding the Next Phase

Warren did not treat the original donation as the end of his involvement. He recently provided another $20 million, money that is helping expand the park and allowing it to offer more free programs to the public. His two gifts add up to $30 million.

He also sits on the board of the Woodall Rodgers Park Foundation, keeping him connected to the park’s work beyond writing checks.

A Broader Civic Commitment

The park is the most visible piece of a wider giving record. Kelcy Warren made the largest single donation in the history of the University of Texas at Arlington in 2023, a $12 million gift aimed at the school’s resource and energy engineering program. He graduated from UTA in 1978.

His support also reaches MD Anderson Cancer Center, the Dallas Children’s Advocacy Center, the March of Dimes, and the Bush Foundation. Through a partnership between Energy Transfer and the Texas Rangers, he has supported the West Dallas Youth Academy since 2018.

Outside of Dallas, he was appointed to the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees in 2019. Governor Greg Abbott also appointed him to serve on the University of Texas System Board of Regents through 2025.

For many Dallas residents, though, Kelcy Warren’s name is most closely linked to a place where they can spend an afternoon outdoors. The park turned a philanthropic pledge into something the public uses every day, free of charge for many of its programs. Read this article for additional information.

 

More about Kelcy Warren on https://www.forbes.com/profile/kelcy-warren/