A plaza in Sarkeys Energy Center was dedicated to an alumnus from the OU College of Earth and Energy Monday morning for his longtime success in offshore drilling.

Alumni and faculty, including President David Boren and college Dean Larry Grillot, gathered in the Gene Van Dyke Plaza to honor the oil-drilling entrepreneur, who attended the event with his wife and daughter.

The college named the plaza after Van Dyke because he recently made a donation to pay for the plaza’s renovation and repairs, Grillot said.

These repairs included improving acoustics, adding wireless Internet and updating safety standards. Features in the plaza include two student computer labs, a classroom, a conference room and lounge areas.

The president and CEO of independent oil and gas company Vex Exploration Co., Van Dyke has had more than 55 years of experience in the industry as a wildcatter, an oil-hunting entrepreneur.

Van Dyke graduated from OU in 1950 with a degree in geological engineering while working for Kerr-McGee Corp. in Oklahoma City, where he also worked before and after college. He then started his own business in 1962, Van Dyke Oil Company, which focused on exploration and production in Louisiana. He devoted the company to international offshore exploration in 1973, according to his profile on the Vanco Group website.

Van Dyke said he has made most of his offshore-oil discoveries in the North Sea off of the Netherlands.

His current projects include drilling off the coasts of Argentina and Ghana.

The plaza’s renovations were completed last fall and add to the building’s notable design, Grillot said.

“The college has grown: We have a wonderful facility, [and] we forget sometimes,” Grillot said. “[Other colleges] always say things like, ‘Gee, I wish we had something like this.’”

The college has its influential alumni — including Van Dyke — to thank for bringing such esteem to the building, Boren said.

“This is a remarkable place, and when you think about the history of the exploration for energy and the creation of new energy … so much of that history has been written right here in this college,” Boren said.

The plaza’s facilities have been running since renovations were completed in fall 2010.

“Thank you very, very much for giving me a chance to do this. And if I had more money, I could do more,” Van Dyke said jokingly to the audience.