Dewey Bartlett
The second Republican governor of Oklahoma was the late Dewey Bartlett, a native of Marietta, Ohio. He was first elected to the state Senate in 1962 and re-elected in 1964. He served as governor from Jan. 9, 1967, to Jan. 11, 1971, and was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972.Bartlett was instrumental in the creation of Oklahoma’s vo-tech system. His commitment to improving the quality of life through the creation of jobs was evident in his efforts to link vo-tech education and economic development in the state of Oklahoma. He also supported the creation of a state board for vocational education, independent of the Education Department’s state board.
Upon graduation from Princeton University, Bartlett served in the U.S. Marine Corps. His expertise as a combat dive bomber pilot in World War II earned him the Air Medal.
Bartlett was inducted into the CareerTech Hall of Fame in 1990.
Otha H. Grimes achieved legendary status among his contemporaries in the polled Hereford business and beef cattle industry. The Ohio native owned Ogeechee Farms in Fairland and was considered a pioneer in the performance testing movement that has become the standard management practice for today's beef cattle producers.
Caroline Hughes, a Drumright native, has a long history of service to career and technology education at the local, state and national levels.
Byrle Killian provided leadership in state plan development for the Southern Region when the Vocational Education Act of 1963 was implemented. His cooperation and sharing of information in that role exemplified Killian’s 42-year career in vocational education.
Gov. George Nigh was born in McAlester, Oklahoma, and was the son of Wilbur R. and Irene Crockett Nigh. In 1950, he graduated from East Central State College in Ada, Oklahoma. From 1951 to 1959, he alternated between service in the Oklahoma House of Representatives and as a teacher in the McAlester public schools.
Lela O’Toole, a native of Thomas, Oklahoma, served 24 years as dean of the College of Home Economics at Oklahoma State University.
J.B. Perky worked 44 years in vocational education. During this time, he was a vocational agriculture teacher, district supervisor, state supervisor, state advisor of the Future Farmers of America and state director.
Robert Price, a native Oklahoman, graduated from Oklahoma A&M College in 1946 with a master’s degree in agricultural education. He received his doctorate in 1956 from Penn State University. Price taught vocational agriculture in Westville, Stigler, Paden, Hitchcock and Okeene before joining OSU’s Agricultural Education Department in 1948. He became head of that department in 1959.
In a journalism career that spanned more than 60 years, Roy P. Stewart was an author, historian and newsman. His column “Country Boy” linked him with thousands of Oklahomans. He also wrote numerous magazine articles and books.
Francis Tuttle was director of Oklahoma's State Department of Vocational and Technical Education for almost two decades. He pioneered the way for career and technical education nationwide.
Teacher, administrator, war veteran, professor, college dean and international consultant -- Arch Alexander, who retired as deputy director of the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education, was all of these.
Mention the history of Oklahoma distributive education and one person comes immediately to mind — M. J. DeBenning. DeBenning presided over the incorporation of distributive education into the Oklahoma CareerTech System, and he was one of its staunchest defenders.
Conversations about the pioneers of the Oklahoma FFA Association don’t get very far until the name of Dick Fisher is mentioned.
During an educational career that spanned more than 40 years, Lucille Patton earned a deserved reputation as one of Oklahoma’s most respected educators.
Community service — these two simple words were nearly redefined by Larry Hansen, who served as assistant director of the Oklahoma Department of Vocational and Technical Education.
During his 36-year educational career, Bill Harrison held only two jobs — but they were jobs that affected thousands of Oklahomans.
In its 75-year history, the CareerTech System has had thousands of dedicated and committed supporters. Few, however, exceed the contributions of Don Ramsey.
Gracious, kind, soft-spoken, professional, efficient -- all are adjectives that aptly described May Rollow, Oklahoma’s first lady of vocational home economics.
A great sense of humor, a strong belief in the value of education and a role model for children — these were three of Jess Banks’ most admirable qualities.
Warm, gracious and giving -- these three simple words speak volumes about Edna Crow, retired district supervisor of vocational home economics and state adviser of the Future Homemakers of America/Home Economics Related Occupations.
Ralph Dreessen was born in 1918 — the same year the United States’ vocational education system was implemented. During the next 77 years, they would grow up together.
Little boys are said to be made of snakes and snails and puppy dog tails, but Bruce Gray was made of dreams.
Hugh Lacy’s philosophy was simple: Teach students how to prepare themselves for the world of work and let them know you’re interested in their success and welfare.
Regardless of with whom Mary Randall is working, her zest seems to magnetically attract others to the cause she advocates. Thankfully, for 26 years that cause was vocational education. She infected everyone with whom she came in contact with enthusiasm and a positive attitude.
Few would have guessed that the infant born Sept. 20, 1919, to Mr. and Mrs. P.J. Ayres would grow up to be such a giant in career and technology education.
Oklahoma agricultural education has a long and proud history. Few names in that storied history are any more prominent than that of Marlow’s Ernest Muncrief.
Willa Ryan Combs was born Aug. 11, 1925, in Oklahoma City to William and Lala Ryan. After graduating with honors from Dunbar High School in Shawnee, she enrolled at Langston University. She graduated from Langston in 1947 with a bachelor of science degree in vocational home economics. That same year, she married Sylvester L. Combs.
Ted and his twin brother were born to Fred and Preppa Best on June 27, 1922, in the Cotton County community of Hulan. As one of 11 children, Best learned quickly how to share, get along with others and appreciate the power of hard work. These were lessons that he would apply throughout his 36-year educational career.
Teacher, coach, mentor, friend - those are the words that best summarize the life of Bob Brown.
John H. Hopper was born Oct. 10, 1925, near Mountain Home, Arkansas. He was the youngest of 10 children born to Alfred and Lucy Hopper.
Dale Hughey was born Nov. 12, 1909, in Cherokee, Oklahoma.
Joe Walton Lemley was born on May 16, 1925, in the small community of Pine Hill near Dover, Arkansas. He spent the first eight years of his life in Arkansas and in 1933 moved with his family to a farm near Checotah.
Wayne W. Miller’s career in vocational education has taken him all over the world — from Thailand to the Bahamas.
Veteran educator Marvin Stokes grew up on a farm in Corley, south of Stratford, Oklahoma. After graduating from high school, Stokes attended East Central University and later received a master’s degree from Oklahoma A&M.
Vic VanHook was born April 12, 1924, in Springfield, Missouri. Following high school graduation, he worked briefly for the Treasury Department in Washington, D.C., before being recruited into the Army at age 18 to serve in World War II. During the war, he was stationed in Europe.
Congressman Wes Watkins was raised on a small cattle and peanut farm near Bennington in southeast Oklahoma. As a young boy, Watkins was involved in 4-H and FFA and later became state FFA president. Watkins found time for leadership positions in school despite working three part-time jobs, playing basketball and baseball and earning the title of salutatorian of his graduating class.
Born in Orlando, Oklahoma, in 1911, Gus Friedemann was one of 12 children. The Friedemann family moved to the Stillwater area where Gus attended school. Gus used a variety of transportation to get to school. He usually rode his bicycle and on rainy days rode his horse, Ribbon.
Ruth Killough was born Ruth Alice Coulter, the daughter of Marie and Kent Coulter, on April 14, 1926, in Maryville, Missouri.
Roy Peters was born June 3, 1942, the son of lifelong educators Mr. and Mrs. Roy Peters Sr. After graduation from Alex High School, Peters went to the University of Oklahoma, where he earned a bachelor's degree in business education. He later earned a master's degree in technical education from Oklahoma State University and a doctorate in occupational and adult education from OSU.
Bill G. Powers took the first steps on a life-long educational journey at Liberty Elementary School in Coweta in 1936. He graduated from Coweta High School in 1948 and received several scholarships to study at Oklahoma State University. He graduated with a degree in vocational agricultural education in 1953. He later received a master’s degree in vocational agricultural education and higher education from OSU. He also attended the University of Tulsa, Oregon State University and the University of Kentucky.
Norma Jean Sullivan Robertson was born on Nov. 2, 1935, in Barnsdall to Lyles and Beva Jones Sullivan. She graduated from Barnsdall High School in 1954. She attended the University of Oklahoma and received a bachelor’s degree in home economics in 1958.
Arthur Foster was a community banker and president of the board for Central Technology Center in Drumright/Sapulpa.
Clyde Knight was a trade and industrial education professor at Oklahoma State University.
DeAnn Pence taught vocational family and consumer sciences at Chandler High School for more than 30 years.
J.W. Weatherford was born and raised in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma. He attended Pauls Valley High School, where he played football, was a member of Distributive Education Clubs of America, worked part time for Safeway Inc. grocery and discovered his passion for education and vocational studies. After graduating high school, he attended East Central State University, where he pursued a bachelor's degree in history and government.
For more than 35 years Beaty worked for the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education. He began as an assistant supervisor of the Finance Division and held several positions before becoming chief of staff. He retired in 2003.
Ann Benson launched her career by teaching home economics in her hometown of Coyle, Oklahoma. She served as curriculum specialist and assistant state director of ODCTE before being appointed state director in 1999.
Sam Combs taught vocational agriculture at Wheatley High School in Beggs before being hired by the Soil Conservation Service. He retired from SCS in 1990.
Charles "Chuck" Hopkins earned national recognition by developing and teaching Management by Objectives to career and technology educators throughout the United States. He was employed by ODCTE for 30 years in planning, evaluation, curriculum, federal programs, equity and career information and guidance before retiring as an assistant director in 1999.
As editor of The Oklahoma Observer, Frosty Troy was an ardent support of CareerTech education.
Charlotte Edwards served as executive director of the Oklahoma Association of Career and Technology Education.
Ted V. Fisher was elected to the Oklahoma Senate in 1986.
Mike Stephens was an agricultural education teacher and FFA adviser for 36 years. He taught at Guthrie and Chickasha high schools.
Ron Wilkerson joined the Oklahoma Department of Vocational and Technical Education staff as assistant career information officer in February 1973 and retired as chief communications officer.
Elmer L. “Tex” Williamson began his career at the Hodgen Correctional Center, later renamed the Jim E. Hamilton Correctional Center, location of the Jim E. Hamilton Skills Center. Williamson worked as a counselor and retired 31 years later as a student services specialist.
Richard C. “Dick” Anderson discovered his future career path in 1960 when he enrolled in distributive education at Tulsa’s Will Rogers High School. Attending school half days and then reporting to work at Sears Roebuck fueled his creativity and love for marketing. He wrote a report on retail presentation and store displays titled, “Mannequin Oh Mannequin, You Do More Than a Person Can.” It placed first in state competition and third at the national DE conference.
Brenda (Jones) Brixey left her hometown of Morrilton, Ark., at 16 with her high school diploma and a home economics scholarship to attend the University of Central Arkansas. Three years later, in 1968, she had a bachelor's degree in vocational home economics and a job offer in Salina, Okla.
Gene Callahan, a native of Big Stone Gap, Virginia, joined the U.S. Air Force after his freshman year of college. He served four years in the medical corps and as an administrative specialist at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi. The GI Bill helped finance his bachelor's and master's degrees in education earned at Virginia Tech.
Raymond Cockrum started his formal education at age 4 in a one-room schoolhouse, which was soon consolidated with Stroud Public Schools. In 1954, he enrolled in his first agricultural education class and joined FFA. His teacher, John Hopper, who later made a name for himself as superintendent of Central Technology Center, was a great source of inspiration to the young Cockrum. When Cockrum earned his State Farmer Degree a few years later, it was presented by another well-known Oklahoman, State FFA President Wes Watkins. Stroud School was destroyed by fire, so Cockrum attended his last two years of high school in the FFA show barns, where he felt right at home.
Clovis Weatherford grew up in Pauls Valley as the middle child in a family of three boys. While in high school, he enrolled in the vocational distributive education (marketing) program and worked part time at Safeway grocery. He later worked full time for Safeway while attending East Central State University on a football scholarship.
Henry Bellmon, who achieved national recognition as one of Oklahoma’s greatest statesmen, grew up on the family farm in north central Oklahoma. One of 13 children, Bellmon learned early how to work hard, manage finances and get along well with others.
Earl Cowan was born in his grandparents' home on the gin lot in Maysville, Oklahoma. While he was growing up in south Oklahoma City, his favorite classes in junior high and high school were industrial arts and drafting. In college he majored in industrial arts education, earning bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Central Oklahoma. He completed additional graduate work at Central Michigan University and the University of Oklahoma before completing his doctorate in occupational and adult education at Oklahoma State University. Cowan also served in the Oklahoma Air National Guard and the Air Force Reserve.
Jim E. Hamilton was born in rural LeFlore County. In high school, he earned the Junior Master Farmer Degree and served as state vice president of FFA. A graduate of Oklahoma State University, Hamilton earned his law degree at the University of Oklahoma and was admitted to the Oklahoma bar in 1960. He then served in the U.S. Army and Army Reserve, finishing first in his class of artillery training at Fort Sill.
Vince Orza started his dynamic career by teaching distributive education — now called marketing education — at Del City High School, a result of CareerTech teacher training received at Oklahoma State University and the University of Central Oklahoma. Orza went on to become a tenured professor of marketing at the University of Central Oklahoma and dean of the Meinders School of Business at Oklahoma City University. Along the way, he enjoyed simultaneous careers as an award-winning television news anchor at KOCO-TV, the ABC affiliate in Oklahoma City, and as a respected advertising and marketing research consultant. His multifaceted career included the creation of Garfield's Restaurants and Eateries Inc. Under Orza’s 22-year leadership as chairman and CEO, Garfield's grew into a nationally recognized Oklahoma-based public company operating restaurants in 26 states from California to New York with annual revenues in excess of $100 million.
Harold F. Anglin graduated from Durant High School and earned a bachelor’s degree from Southeastern State University and a master’s degree from Emporia (Kansas) State University. He earned hours for his superintendent’s certification through Oklahoma State University. He also served 11 years in the Oklahoma National Guard, from 1953 to 1964.
Frank Schaffer Coulter was born in Eldon, Missouri. He attended elementary school in Kansas City, Missouri, and graduated in 1955 from Humboldt (Kansas) High School, where he was active in sports and theater. He lettered in baseball, basketball and track.
Norman Filtz grew up on the family farm near Orlando and learned the value of hard work early while helping his father work fields, tend livestock and break horses. He fondly remembers the deal he made with his father to shock their field of oats by hand in return for a calf. That calf started Filtz’s herd and instilled in him an entrepreneurial spirit. With his love of farming and true cowboy spirit, it was only natural he joined FFA as a freshman and became FFA chapter president at Orlando High School.
Kay Martin was born in Bartlesville and grew up in El Dorado, Kansas. A high school business teacher encouraged her to study business, which she did at Emporia (Kansas) State University. She earned associate and bachelor’s degrees in business education.
Dwight Stoddard received his formal education in Lawton at Washington Grade School, Central Junior High School and Lawton Senior High School, where he graduated in 1959. He attended Cameron Junior College for two years before transferring to Oklahoma State University, where he completed a degree in mathematics. In 1964, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant through the OSU Army ROTC. He served two years on active duty in Chun Chon, Korea, and continued in the Army Reserve for 28 more years, retiring as a full colonel in 1994.
Phil Berkenbile was born in Torrance, California, and adopted by Melvin and Lucille Berkenbile. He grew up on a farm in Dover. He was active in Student Council, basketball and baseball teams, agricultural education and FFA at Dover High School. He received his State FFA Degree in 1968 and the American FFA Degree in 1971. He graduated from Oklahoma State University in 1972 with a bachelor’s degree in agricultural education.
Dean Denton graduated from Coweta High School in 1965, having spent his formative years through 12th grade in one school building. In the ninth grade, he knew that he wanted to become a teacher. He majored in business education at Northeastern State University, where he encountered his first electric typewriter -- the IBM Selectric. A teaching internship at Muskogee High School led to a job with the district. Two years later, he accepted a position in the newly opened Indian Capital Technology Center.
Dale Ray DeWitt grew up in rural Braman. He was active in sports and 4-H and graduated from high school in 1968. He earned an associate degree in science in 1970 from Northern Oklahoma College and a bachelor’s degree in agricultural education in 1973 from Oklahoma State University, where he competed on the livestock judging team.
Beatrice “Bea” Goulden Paul was raised in Kay County, where her family had a cattle operation. She was active in 4-H and church activities and graduated from Newkirk High School. Her 4-H involvement served as a catalyst for her to attend Oklahoma State University. She earned a bachelor’s degree in the Home Economics College (now the College of Human Sciences).
Gregory Ervin Pierce was born in Duncan and graduated from Velma-Alma High School in 1966. He was active in FFA on the Livestock Judging and Parliamentary Procedure teams. He also showed hogs and steers, was active in sports and was class president and a National Honor Society member.
Doctor Coaken Jones was born on a small tenant farm on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, on Jan. 15, 1894, and spent his boyhood on nearby Parris Island. After completing his schooling there, he left home to attend Penn Normal and Industrial School in Frogmore, South Carolina, working for his room and board.