Voices of Oklahoma

Howard Barnett began his career in 1975 as a business lawyer in Tulsa, specializing in securities offerings and corporate transactions primarily for the growing number of entrepreneurial oil and gas companies. In 1985, he joined Tribune Swab-Fox Companies Inc. as its executive vice president and COO of its daily newspaper subsidiary, Tulsa Tribune Company, eventually becoming chairman and CEO of t...

Donald E. Pray reached many goals by graduating from Tulsa’s Central High School in 1950, graduating from the University of Tulsa in 1955 with a degree in petroleum engineering, and graduating from the University of Oklahoma School of Law in 1963. The law library at the University of Oklahoma was named for him thanks to a gift from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, honoring Don Pray’s service to...

The sports network ESPN owes its existence to Tulsa’s own George Conner. After graduating from the University of Tulsa with a marketing degree in 1964, George went to work for Skelly Oil in downtown Tulsa. When Getty Oil gained control of Skelly in 1974, George became a finance manager and was asked to study a proposed Connecticut-based Cable Television network committed to all-day, every-day spor...

Born at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, Eddy Gibbs was raised in Checotah by his mother. Only 10 when his father passed away, Gibbs felt a strong need to provide for the family.  After graduation from high school, he began installing fences in Tulsa, followed by apprenticeships in Kansas City, Missouri and Bakersfield, California to perfect the trade. He returned home to start his own company and, eight year...

Richard “Dick” Willhour graduated from Will Rogers High School and enrolled in the University of Tulsa. When World War II began, he joined the Army and was attached to the 100th Infantry division as a machine gunner. Upon his return from military service, Dick’s father told him to write about the experience, and so, at 99 years old, that script was helpful in telling his story. The chaos of the ba...

Born in a half-dugout, in what was Fonda, Oklahoma, Roger Hardesty went on to become a real estate developer and builder, making his mark on Tulsa in 1959. During his late teens he began his building career by learning on the job, starting with concrete finishing, then single-family followed by multi-family housing units, industrial buildings, commercial retail centers, office buildings and hotels...

The John T. Nickel story is that of a work ethic which led to success far beyond anything he could have ever imagined. While in his early twenties, along with a friend, he traveled to California for an adventure. He returned to Oklahoma with an idea that set him on a path beyond his wildest dream. As a result, he developed Greenleaf Nursery in Cherokee County, Oklahoma (on Lake Tenkiller), into a...

Born in the Bronx, New York, Judge Claire Eagan graduated from Trinity Washington University in 1972 and later from Fordham University School of Law. She began her legal career working as a law clerk to Judge Allen Barrow of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma, and went into private practice at the Hall Estill Law Firm in Tulsa, Oklahoma from 1978 to 1998. Claire served a...

Drew Edmondson is the son of former U.S. Congressman Ed Edmondson and June Edmondson. He is also a nephew of former Governor J. Howard Edmondson. His brother, James Edmondson, is a justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court. Drew was the Oklahoma Attorney General from 1995 to 2011. His 58 opinions defending the Open Meeting and Open Records Acts strengthened citizen access to government. He sued the to...

A graduate of the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy (now the University of Missouri–Rolla), Keith Bailey’s initial degree was in mechanical engineering. His academic record was augmented several years later with a professional degree in mechanical engineering from UMR and the completion of studies at the Harvard University Program for Management Development.  In 1973 Keith became an assistan...

Jimmy Houston is known for hosting his own television show, Jimmy Houston Outdoors, which is watched by 2 million people around the world. He was born on July 27th, 1944, was raised in Oklahoma City, and attended high school in Moore. Jimmy moved with his family to Cookson, Oklahoma, near Lake Tenkiller, during his senior year of high school.  His parents bought a resort there, where he became obs...

John D. Groendyke is Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Groendyke Transport, Inc., the fifth-largest motor carrier of bulk commodities serving the continental United States, Canada, and Mexico. It all began on July 12, 1932, when John’s father, Harold Groendyke, transported his first load of kerosene from Borger, Texas, to Beaver, Oklahoma. He drove a two-axle Ford truck equipped...

Adopted as an infant in Norway and brought home to Tulsa, Jon Stuart was educated in Tulsa, and at the Culver Military Academy, the University of Oklahoma, and the University of Tulsa. As chairman of the board and chief executive officer of First Stuart Corporation, Jon is continuing in the family business. He also is the managing partner of Jon R. Stuart Interests, L.L.C., with the primary focus...

Danna Sue Walker wrote the “People and Places” column six days a week in The Tulsa World for at least 24 years. Her column kept readers informed about the fundraisers and events for many of the city’s nonprofit organizations, and the column is one of the reasons Tulsa is known as a caring and philanthropic city. A native of Tulsa, Danna Sue graduated from the University of Tulsa. She joined The Wo...

Clarke’s Good Clothes, founded in 1929 in Tulsa by Harry Clarke Sr., developed into a clothing store for men, women and children. From its downtown location, the store expanded to Utica Square Shopping Center in 1962 and then to the 50,000 square-foot store in Southland Shopping Center at 41st and Yale. In 1976 the expansion continued to Tulsa’s Woodland Hills Mall at 71st and Memorial, and then o...

Joe Harwood had a head start on becoming an owner of yacht clubs and marinas on Grand Lake. Joe was introduced to lake life because his father loved lakes and boating. It was during a summer break from college that Joe’s first job was at Bomar’s Marina on Grand Lake. After graduating he went to work full-time at the marina where he sold, repaired boats, and pumped gas. As a child, Joe dreamed abou...

Ross Swimmer’s Native American heritage and work in real estate law intersected when he performed pro bono work for the Cherokee Nation Housing Authority, and he later became in-house counsel for the Cherokee Nation. Ross began working for the Nation in an official capacity in 1972 and became Principal Chief in 1975. He remained Principal Chief until 1983, when he left at the request of President...

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Junior League of Tulsa conducted oral history interviews with pioneer Tulsans on medicine, lifestyles, architecture, government, business, education, journalism, and many other subjects regarding the early history of Tulsa. The collection rests with the Tulsa City-County Library. One of the interviews featured Lewis Meyer. For sixty years, Meyer was a Tulsa i...

William Ray Nash was the founder of United Bank in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which he sold in 1984. The bank became known as the Bank of America. His first experience in the banking business came in 1966 when he worked for the Bank of Oklahoma in charge of advertising, public relations, and marketing. He graduated from the Oklahoma Intermediate School of Banking at OSU and the School of Bank Public Relatio...

In 1948, at the age of 21, Gene Stipe was elected to the Oklahoma State House of Representatives representing Pittsburgh County, making him the youngest person elected to the state legislature. Stipe won a senate seat in 1956 and served for forty-eight years, making him the longest-serving Oklahoma State Senator.    Gene had a reputation as an excellent trial lawyer and took the lead in some impor...

In the summer of 1939 there was a little girl living in Lodz, Poland who was looking forward to the first grade. It was while on the family summer vacation that Eva Unterman heard her family members quietly talking about Germany and war. They cut short their vacation and went home to Lodz and soon little Eva was looking at black, shiny boots. The German invasion of Poland was underway. Eva’s famil...

Equipped with a degree from The University of Tulsa and the experience of working with his father, Dan P. Holmes, in his insurance business, Holmes and Chester Cadieux co-founded QuikTrip Corporation in 1958. QuikTrip has grown to one of the country’s most successful convenience store networks. Later, he established Burt B. Holmes and Associates, the predecessor of The Holmes Organisation Inc., wh...

Neal McCaleb is a member of the Chickasaw Nation and a former George W. Bush administration official. Before his involvement in politics, McCaleb was a civil engineer and businessman. He served on the Oklahoma Indian Affairs Commission from 1967 until 1972 when President Nixon appointed him to the National Council on Indian Opportunities. He was also a member of the Oklahoma House of Representativ...

Marcia Mitchell is the founder of The Little Light House, a faith-based mission to assist children with a wide range of developmental disabilities including autism, Down syndrome, and cerebral palsy. The program is not only a facility for students, but also serves as a training ground for professionals and volunteers throughout the United States and other countries who are learning to reach out to...

Rick Brinkley was the minister of the Collinsville Community Church, an Emmy-nominated television producer in Oklahoma, Baltimore, and New York City, and President/CEO of Eastern Oklahoma’s Better Business Bureau and then its Chief Operating Officer from 1999 to 2015. He became a State Senator in 2010, serving as the Chair of Pensions, Vice-Chair of the Finance Committee, and a member of the Appro...