Eight outstanding Oklahomans, seven living and one deceased, have been selected for induction into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 2004, Clayton I. Bennett, Chairman of the Board of the Oklahoma Heritage Association, has announced.
The honorees are Bill Anoatubby, Ada; Molly Shi Boren, Norman; Frederick F. Drummond, Pawhuska; William E. Durrett, Oklahoma City; Christine Gaylord Everest, Oklahoma City; Leona Mitchell, Enid; R. James Woolsey, McLean, Virginia; and Wiley Post (deceased), Maysville.
Anoatubby has been Governor of the Chickasaw Nation since 1987. Under his leadership, the Chickasaw Nation has grown from 250 employees with an $11 million annual budget to almost 4,500 employees and an annual budget of almost $300 million. Anoatubby has stressed education, economic development, and health services and has overseen the development of almost three dozen businesses owned and operated by the Chickasaw Nation.
Anoatubby has been active at the state and national levels in various positions of volunteer leadership. A few of his wide ranging activities include service as a trustee for the Morris K.Udall Foundation and Oklahoma City University; member of Fannie Mae's National Advisory Council; board member of Oklahoma State Board for Easter Seals and Crippled Children, Leadership Oklahoma, Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence; Oklahoma Academy for State Goals; member of Governor Henry's Task Force on Mental Health, Substance Abuse and Domestic Violence, along with many others.
Anoatubby presently is serving his third term as Chairman of the Native American Culture on Educational Authority, which is developing a major, new Native American Cultural Center in Oklahoma City. This will be a world-class facility designed to provide a state, national and international focus on the tribes located in Oklahoma.
Boren is the first person to have served both as First Lady of the State of Oklahoma and First Lady of the University of Oklahoma. A native of Ada who was raised in Stratford, she became one of the youngest women judges in Oklahoma history when she was appointed special district judge for Pontotoc County. She also was one of the first women to serve as a trustee of the Oklahoma Bar Association. Her service as First Lady of Oklahoma began with her marriage to then Governor David Boren in 1977. She remained active in civic and cultural affairs for 16 years, dividing her time between Washington, D. C. and Oklahoma while her husband served as a United States Senator.
Mrs. Boren moved to Norman in 1994 when David became president of the University of Oklahoma. She has touched many areas of campus life and has become renowned for her promotion of renovation and restoration of historic buildings and landscaping on all three OU campuses. As a civic leader, she has served on the national Board of The Nature Conservancy, in which capacity she advocated establishing the national Tall Grass Prairie Preserve in Oklahoma and worked to secure its approval by the national board. She chaired the effort to establish the first permanent endowment fund for the Oklahoma Arts Institute, and headed the board of that organization for three years.
A former trustee of the Sarkeys Foundation, Mrs. Boren is a director of the Dollar Thrifty Corporation and previously served on the boards of the Central and Southwest Corporation, PET Inc., the Pepsi General Bottling Company of Chicago, the Baltimore Orioles baseball team, and Liberty Bank..
A Pawnee native , Drummond is a nationally known cattleman who also is a banker, independent oil operator, and civic leader. Educated at Oklahoma State University, Stanford University, and the Wisconsin School of Banking, he has been the owner/operator of the Drummond Ranch at Pawhuska since 1959 and is the third generation owner and operator of ranches in Osage County. He has served as President of the Oklahoma Cattleman's Association, as a director and Chairman of the Tax Committee for the National Cattleman's Association, and as a member of the National Beef Board.
An active civic leader, Drummond was a founding member and Chairman from 1999-2001 of the Oklahoma Nature Conservancy and was a key figure in the establishment of the Tall Grass Prairie Preserve in Osage county. He also has served as President of the Oklahoma State University Alumni Association, Chairman and director of the Grand River Dam Authority, director of the Federal Land Bank of Ponca City, and was an original member of the Oklahoma Academy for State Goals.
Drummond has headed two different commissions studying the problems and potential development of rural Oklahoma. He received the Goodyear Conservation Award in 1978 and the Charles and David Koch Award for Better Government in Oklahoma from the Oklahoma Academy for State Govenrment in 1995. Durrett joined American Fidelity Assurance Corporation in Oklahoma City in 1954 and served in various officer positions, including President/CEO of American Fidelity Corporation from 1977 to 1992 and Chairman from 1989 to 1997. He currently serves as Senior Chairman of AFC and Chairman of North American Insurance Agency. During his tenure of leadership, the company grew dramatically with earned premiums increasing from $64 million to $400 million. In addition, the company's ratings improved from C+ to A+ by A.M. Best Company. He continues to serve as a director of 31 business entities. An active leader in professional, civic, and cultural organizations, Durrett has served as Chairman of INTEGRIS Health and the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce and currently serves as a director of the following: BancOklahoma Financial Corporation, INTEGRIS Health, Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce, Oklahoma Gas & Electric Company, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, Omniplex Science Museum and the State Fair of Oklahoma.
Durrett previously served on the boards of the American Council of Life Insurers, Health Insurance Association of America, Oklahoma Symphony Orchestra and the United Way of Greater Oklahoma City, among many others. He has received the Pathmaker Award from the Oklahoma City/County Historical Society.
Everest is Chief Executive Officer of the Oklahoma Publishing Company, headquartered in Oklahoma City. A prominent philanthropist and civic leader, she currently serves on a wide range of boards, including the University of Oklahoma Board of Regents, Children's Medical Research Institute, and the Presbyterian Health Foundation. Mrs. Everest has been a volunteer leader for a large number of civic, educational, and charitable organizations, including serving as President of Casady School Board of Trustees.
With her husband, Jim Everest, she has been a strong philanthropist in support of a wide range of programs at the University of Oklahoma, including the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication, the Jimmy Austin Golf Course, the Museum of Art, the beautification of the Health Science Center campus, and Sooner athletics.
Mrs. Everest has received numerous honors for her civic work and philanthropy, including the Girl Scout's Woman of the Year in Community Service in 2000, Junior League of Oklahoma City Sustainer of the Year in 1997, the Dean's Award for Distinguished Community Service, awarded to Jim and Christy by the University of Oklahoma Medical Alumni Association, and the Outstanding Philanthropist Award, received by Jim and Christy from the Oklahoma Chapter of the National Society of Fundraising Executives.
A native of Enid, Mitchell is an internationally renowned opera star. A graduate of Oklahoma City University, she has sung hundreds of performances in the major opera houses of the world, including eighteen seasons at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. She has performed opera in such prestigious houses as Covent Garden in London, Vienna, The Australian Opera, Chicago, Rome's Caracalla, Berlin, and many others.
Mitchell also has performed with some of the great orchestras of the world, including the London Philharmonic, The New York Philharmonic, The London Symphony Orchestra, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. As a recitalist, she has performed in concert at New York's Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and in prestigious venues in Europe and Asia.
Mitchell has made frequent television appearances in the United States and abroad, including three videos (one each with Lucianno Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, and Jose Carreras) from the Metropolitan's "Live from Lincoln Center" series, the Gala Statue of Liberty Concert telecast from Central Park, the Kennedy Center Honors Program, and many others. She was inducted into the Music Hall of Fame in 2001 and was named "Cultural Ambassador of Oklahoma" by Governor Brad Henry in 2004.
Woolsey, a Tulsa native, was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University and received his law degree at Yale. He is best known for his extensive public service, having held presidential appointments in two democratic and two republican administrations. Among his service was a term as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Ambassador to the Negotiation of Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, Undersecretary of the Navy, and General Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services.
Woolsey joined Booz Allen Hamilton in July, 2002, as a Vice President and officer in the firm's Global Assurance practice. He also is Chairman of the Board of Freedom House, Chairman of the Advisory Boards of The Clean Fuels Foundation and the New Uses Council and is a trustee for the Center for Strategic and International Studies. In the past he has been Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Board of Regents of The Smithsonian Institution, and a trustee of Stanford University, the Goldwater Scholarship Foundation, and the Aeorspace Corporation.
Woolsey is a frequent contributor of articles to major publications and periodically gives public speeches and media interviews on the subjects of foreign affairs, defense, energy, critical infrastructure protection, and intelligence.
Post was an internationally recognized aviator during the 1930s. He overcame poverty, a felony conviction, and the loss of an eye as a result of an oil field accident to become an aviation pioneer who did much to popularize air travel and to advance aviation technology. After losing his eye, he "retrained" his brain to achieve better depth perception than most people have with two good eyes. In 1931, along with a co-pilot, Post set a new around the world flight record in 8 days. He later set another record for flying solo around the world. In 1934 he established a new altitude record of 55,000 feet while wearing the world's first pressurized suit which he conceived and constructed. During that flight he also discovered the jet stream. Post was killed, along with his friend Will Rogers, in an airplane crash on August 15, 1935, near Point Barrow, Alaska. The 2004 Oklahoma Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will take place in Oklahoma City on the evening of Thursday, November 18th. Individuals interested in attending the Hall of Fame event may obtain information by contacting the Oklahoma Heritage Association at 405-235-4458 or by e-mail at oha@oklahomaheritage.com.
Press release courtesy of the Oklahoma Heritage Association
