People & Places: Danna Sue Walker: Hall of Fame induction set for Nov. 15
BY DANNA SUE WALKER World Staff Writer
Sunday, October 28, 2012
10/28/12 at 5:53 AM
Tulsa and Oklahoma City take turns hosting the Oklahoma Heritage Association's Oklahoma Hall of Fame.
This is our year for the evening that marks the highest honor Oklahomans can receive for their contributions to our state.
Seven of our best will be inducted into the 85th class of the Oklahoma Hall of Fame Nov. 15 at the Renaissance Tulsa Hotel and Convention Center.
2012 Oklahoma Hall of Fame inductees are Suzanne Warren, Tulsa; Stan Clark, Stillwater; Bart Conner, Norman; Tom L. Ward, Edmond; Lee R. West, Edmond; and Ronald H. White, Oklahoma City. Edith Kinney Gaylord, Oklahoma City, will be inducted posthumously.
Suzanne Warren, Greenwich, Conn./Tulsa
Warren grew up in Greenwich, Conn., and attended Rider College, the University of Connecticut, and graduated from Florida Atlantic University with bachelor of arts and master of education degrees. Following graduation, she was employed by the Palm Beach County School System. She worked in several programs funded by federal grants for disadvantaged and low-income students, both as a resource teacher and director, in addition to teaching adult education.
Today, she works to raise public awareness and funding for Tulsa's arts and social service organizations. Warren is a director/trustee of the Children's Hospital Foundation at St. Francis and the Mental Health Association Advisory Board. She is a past director of Cascia Hall Preparatory School, Monte Cassino School, Ronald McDonald House, Tulsa Opera and The Tulsa Philharmonic.
She has been honorary chairwoman of the Red Ribbon 10 Year celebration, which provides home care for patients with AIDS. As a trustee for the Children's Hospital at St. Francis, Warren helped launch the Painted Pony Ball, the annual fundraiser that benefits the Children's Hospital at St. Francis. Through her work with the event, she helped build and financially support the organization so that no family or child in the region is turned away for the lack of ability to pay.
Stan Clark, Tulsa/Stillwater
A native Tulsan, Clark resides in Stillwater, where he has built one of Oklahoma's most recognized brands and become one of our state's greatest ambassadors. The Stan Clark Cos., known as the "Three Amigos," include the flagship Eskimo Joe's, Mexico Joe's, Joseppi's and Eskimo Joe's Promotional Products Group.
In addition to sponsoring a scholarship at Oklahoma State University in the College of Education, the Stan Clark Cos. support many programs, projects and activities in Stillwater.
Bart Conner, Chicago/Oklahoma City
Conner is the only American gymnast to win gold medals at every level of national and international competition. He has been a USA champion, NCAA champion, Pan-American Games champion, world champion, World Cup champion and an Olympic champion. He was a member of three Olympic teams: 1976, 1980 and 1984. It was in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics where he made a dramatic comeback from his second torn biceps injury to win two gold medals.
In the fall of 1976, Conner moved from his hometown of Morton Grove, Ill., to Norman to attend the University of Oklahoma and be coached by Paul Ziert. While at OU, Conner earned 14 NCAA All-American honors and led his team to two NCAA team titles. After graduating with a degree in journalism/PR in 1984, Conner went into business with Ziert. Today, they own several gymnastics-related business interests, including the Bart Conner Gymnastics Academy.
Conner still enjoys high visibility as a public speaker and TV color commentator for ESPN. He is married to Romanian Olympic champion Nadia Comaneci and is a board member of several charities. He has been inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame and the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame.
Edith Kinney Gaylord, Oklahoma City
Edith Kinney Gaylord was a pioneer journalist and philanthropist with a lifelong passion for the news business. She was born in Oklahoma City to Inez Kinney Gaylord and E.K. Gaylord, the editor and publisher of the Daily Oklahoman and the Oklahoma City Times. She attended Colorado College, where she later served as trustee, and in 1937 graduated from Wells College.
Gaylord was the first woman on the general news staff of the Associated Press Washington Bureau. An early assignment to cover first lady Eleanor Roosevelt's press conferences quickly developed into a close friendship. Gaylord became the first lady's media liaison and then secretary of Eleanor Roosevelt's Press Conference Association. In 1944, she was elected president of the Women's National Press Club.
Over her lifetime, Gaylord supported many organizations and projects, often anonymously. In 1982, she established two foundations: the Inasmuch Foundation, which helps the lives it touches; and Investments of Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation, which builds the ethics, skills and opportunities needed to advance principled, probing news and information. Giving from both foundations exceeds $130 million.
Tom L. Ward, Shattuck/Oklahoma City
Ward has been chairman and CEO of SandRidge Energy Inc. since June 2006. Before that, he was president, COO and a director of Chesapeake Energy Corp., which he cofounded with Aubrey K. McClendon.
In 2006, Ward and his son, Trent, cofounded White Fields Inc., a home for severely abused and neglected boys. He graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 1981 with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Petroleum Land Management. Ward is a member of the Professional Basketball Club LLC, which owns the Thunder, Oklahoma's only major sports franchise; the Board of Trustees of Anderson University in Anderson, Ind.; and the First Tee of Metropolitan Oklahoma City. He is also a member of the Economic Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and the Board of Visitors for the OU Health Sciences Center, Department of Medicine.
He has provided scholarship funds to Oklahoma colleges and universities.
Lee R. West, Clayton/Oklahoma City
Born in Clayton and raised in Antlers, Lee R. West received his juris doctorate from the University of Oklahoma College of Law. West was admitted to the Oklahoma State Bar in 1956 and engaged in private practice until 1961, when he became a member of the faculty at the University of Oklahoma College of Law, where he taught torts, damages, evidence, trial practice and workmen's compensation.
During the 1962-1963 term, he was a Ford Foundation Fellow in Law Teaching at Harvard Law School, where he received an LLM degree. In 1963 he returned to private practice and was also labor arbitrator for the National Mediation Board. West was appointed by Gov. Henry Bellmon to serve as district judge for the 22nd Judicial District of Oklahoma, serving also as special justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court and Court of Criminal Appeals. President Nixon appointed him to be a member of the Civil Aeronautics Board in Washington, D.C., and he was designated acting chairman by President Carter.
West re-entered private practice until his appointment to the federal bench, where he also served as chief judge of the Western District of Oklahoma. Since taking senior status in 1994, he has remained active, hearing cases at both district and circuit levels, and serving as a settlement judge in complex and protracted cases.
Ronald H. White, Seminole/Oklahoma City
A graduate of Seminole High School, Ronald H. White received his bachelor of science and medical degrees from the University of Oklahoma. Following residency, he served in the U.S. Navy in Da Nang, Vietnam, and at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. He completed a fellowship in cardiology at the OU Health Sciences Center and entered private practice, specializing in diagnostic and interventional cardiology. He attended one of the first balloon angioplasty training courses in Switzerland and subsequently performed the first procedure in Oklahoma. He was cofounder of the American Society of Cardiovascular Interventionalists and Oklahoma Heart Hospital, and founder of Oklahoma Cardiovascular Associates, the state's largest cardiovascular physician group with satellite clinics in more than 40 cities.
White served two terms on the board of regents of the University of Oklahoma and as chairman three years. He is beginning his second term as a state regent for higher education, receiving appointments from Govs. Boren, Nigh, Henry and Fallin. He served on the board of directors of Oklahoma Gas and Electric, was a member of the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, and a trustee for the OU Foundation, Oklahoma Zoological Society and Westminster Day School.
He is currently a member of the board of directors of the Oklahoma Heritage Association, the OU College of Health Advisory Board and the Jasmine Moran Children's Museum.
For more information and to purchase tickets to the event, contact Millie Craddick, executive administrator of the Oklahoma Hall of Fame, at 405-523-3203 or mc@oklahomaheritage.com
For information about the Oklahoma Heritage Association or Gaylord-Pickens Museum, visit tulsaworld.com/okheritage; or call 405-235-4458.
Original Print Headline: Hall of Fame induction set for Nov. 15
Associated Images:
Becky Dixon (left), Suzanne Warren, Roxana Lorton and Joe Moran prepare for Tulsa to host the induction ceremony for the Oklahoma Hall of Fame on Nov. 15. MATT BARNARD/Tulsa World
|
