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T. Boone Pickens has died at the age of 91.

Pickens is said to have amassed a fortune as an oil tycoon and corporate raider and gave much of it away as a philanthropist. He graduated from Oklahoma State when the university still went by Oklahoma A&M in 1951. Millions of dollars have been poured into the university by Pickens since his graduation and involvement in the energy arena. Oklahoma State's football stadium is named after the energy giant.

Born in Holdenville, Oklahoma, Pickens went to work for Phillips Petroleum in Bartlesville after graduating. The former Bartian eventually became the longtime chief executive of Mesa Petroleum Corp., an independent oil and natural gas company he founded.

When the natural gas company collapsed, Mesa Petroleum hit hard times. In 1996, Mr. Pickens was pushed out of the company he ran for 40 years. It is said by the Wall Street Journal that it was an ironic twist for the one-time corporate raider.

Pickens was surrounded by friends and family when he died of natural causes under hospice care at his Dallas home, spokesman Jay Rosser said. He suffered a series of strokes in 2017 and was hospitalized that July after what he called a "Texas-sized fall."

(Photo courtesy: Adam Jeffery of CNBC News)