Eastern Oklahoma State College, Homecoming 2003

Highlight Nov. 8 on your calendar.
Homecoming will be special for two Eastern Oklahoma State College alums that will be returning for Homecoming Saturday, November 8, on the Wilburton campus. The day will bear a special meaning for Charles W. Davidson and John H. Hendrix.

Hendrix and Davidson have been named by the Eastern Alumni Association Board of Directors to take their place in the Eastern Alumni Hall of Fame during induction ceremonies at the annual Homecoming banquet. Saturday will be the day for alums to join the activities and reunite with their classmates for a full day and evening of activities.

Alumni will honor two alumni as the nineteenth and twentieth Hall of Fame members that have distinguished themselves throughout their lives since attending Eastern.

Although Davidson has lived in San Jose, CA, since May of 1952, he was born and raised in Pittsburg County near Bache and has never forgotten his roots that go as deep in Oklahoma as Indian Territory.

His parents were born and raised in Indian Territory and he attended McAlester public schools. He grew up on a farm and ranch, and when they were not farming, worked in a small coal mine at Dow his father and partner owned. He worked in the summer of 1944 as a laborer on a wartime housing project in McAlester and later as a mechanics’ helper at the ammunition depot, and as an oiler on a dragline in open pit mines near Alderson.

After spending three years in the Air Force, he attended summer school at East Central then attended Eastern Oklahoma State College in 1950-51, summer school at Oklahoma A&M and later received a degree in civil engineering from San Jose State University.

Davidson worked as a civil engineer and surveyor for various government and private agencies in California, Missouri and Oklahoma. He was a civil engineer for the City of San Jose until 1959 when he entered the consulting civil engineering business. He has been a homebuilder and developer and currently owns several construction and property management companies. He has served as the Vice Chair of the State of California Commission for Economic Development and has an avid interest in government at all levels.

Hendrix has a myriad of life experiences beginning as a high school student cutting pulpwood and logs with hay cutting and bailing tossed in for good measure to Chairman and President of numerous educational and financial boards including his own company, the John H. Hendrix Corporation.

He graduated from high school at Gillham, AR, and attended Eastern Oklahoma A&M, now Eastern Oklahoma State College, where he received the Associate in Science Degree in 1956. He then attended Oklahoma State University in Stillwater earning his bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering (Petroleum Option) in 1958 and his Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering in 1960.

While attending college Hendrix worked summers for Empire Geo-physical, Inc. and Continental Oil Company as a pulling unit hand, roustabout and geophysical computer analyst in Wewoka and Lea County, NM. In 1964 he joined Texas Pacific Oil Company as District Petroleum Engineer in Midland, Texas, and in 1967 entered private business in natural resource development and as a consulting Petroleum Engineer.

On December 31, 1976, he organized and became President of the John H. Hendrix Corporation. Since that time he has served on a number of boards and is currently Chairman of the Board of First National Security Company, DeQueen, AR; Chairman and President of John H. Hendrix Corporation, Midland, TX; Chairman of the Board of Directors, First National Bank, DeQueen; Chairman of the Board of Directors, First National Bank of Howard County, Dierks, AR; Chairman of the Board of Directors, Bank of Ashdown, N.A., Ashdown, AR; Member of the Board of Directors, Citizen’s National Bank, Nashville, AR.

Hendrix also serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors, Bank of Waldron, Waldron, AR; Member of the Board of Directors, First National Bancshares of Hempstead County, Inc., Hope, AR; Board of Governors, High Sky Girls Ranch, Midland; President of the Board of Trustees, Midland College Foundation and Member of the Board of Directors, Hillander School, Midland. He has also served on the Board of Directors of Midland Memorial Hospital, Midland College, Permian Basin Petroleum Museum, Salvation Army and Midland Junior Achievement.

Alumni activities will begin early Saturday with a 9:30 a.m. Hilltopper Breakfast for retired faculty and staff followed by an Alumni Coffee and Registration in the Student Union Coffee Shop and an 11 a.m. General Alumni meeting.

A free lunch will be available for everyone attending the activities from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. with special class recognition lunch in the East Cafeteria for the classes of 1954-1956, 1976-78 and 1973.

Contact individuals for the class reunions include: Class of 54-56: Nita Lewark; Route 2, Box 100; Clayton, Ok 74536; 918.569.4364 - Class of 73: Sherri (Seabolt) Prentice; 1201 NW 4th Street; Stigler, Ok 74462; 918.967.8397; sprentice@quinton.k12.ok.us; - Eastern Athletes from '76-78: Joe Hightower 313.934.5185; Reginald "Hollywood" Knighten; 501.455.4264 - Ernest Leaks; 703.344.8614 - Steve Pollok; 918.481.8779.

The Lady Mountaineers will begin their first home basketball game at 1:30 p.m. in the Field House followed by the men’s game at 3:30 p.m. with homecoming coronation at men’s game.

Hendrix and Davidson will be inducted into the Alumni Hall of Fame during the 6:30 p.m. homecoming banquet. They will join McAlester native George Nigh who served in the Oklahoma House of Representatives, Lieutenant Governor, Governor and president of the University of Central Oklahoma.

They also join Dr. E.T. Dunlap, who has been recognized nationally for his contribution to education and served as Eastern President and Chancellor of Oklahoma Higher Education; Scott Salmon, who was a nationally known choreographer; Rita Smith Kipp, class of 1966, who serves as professor of anthropology at Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, a widely published author and Wilburton native. They also join J.D. Williams who was inducted while an attorney in Washington, D.C., and, among other things, served as Editor of the George Washington Law Review and Federal Bar Journal.

Billy West became the sixth Eastern alumni to be elected to the Hall of Fame. West served as a laboratory research scientist at the Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta. Sidney Carney, among other achievements, served as Bureau of Indian Affairs Area Director in Anadarko where he developed and supervised programs benefitting more than 40,000 Indians within a four state area.

Ross Harlan, Oklahoma City, was added to the Hall of Fame in 1992. He served as Senior Vice President of Administration and Public Affairs before his retirement from OG&E.

“Pat” Murphy, Tulsa, followed Harlan in 1993. He established the Frank W. Murphy MFR, an international company holding 15 United States and foreign patents in the area of instruments and control systems.

Sports journalist “Spec” Gammon was inducted in 1994. He served as sports information director at Texas A&M and became known as the radio voice of Texas A&M football. Don Parham became the eleventh member added to the Hall of Fame and began his academic career as an educator in southeast Oklahoma more than 40 years ago. He is recognized not only as one who has experienced success in athletics but also as one whose life’s work has stressed high academic standards.

Dr. Robert H. Purcell became the twelfth member. He is a research scientist and serves as the head of hepatitis viruses section, Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.

Dr. Charles Montgomery serves as the Director of the Center for Comparative Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. He is recognized as an expert in comparative medicine throughout the world.

Dr. Henry Migliore, Jenks, was added as the fourteenth member of the Hall of Fame. He is a university professor and consultant in strategic management. He has lectured in universities and consulted with organizations around the world.

James F. Howell became the fifteenth member of the Hall of Fame in 1999. He was admitted to practice law in Oklahoma in 1963 and since that time has been admitted to practice in the United States District Court of Oklahoma for the Western District; The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma; The United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit and The Supreme Court of the United States of America. He was elected to the State Senate in 1970 and served until 1986.

Guy L. Curry, class of 1961, became the sixteenth member of the Hall of Fame. Curry is a professor of industrial engineering at Texas A&M University. He has served as a consultant for a number of national and international firms. During his tenure at Texas A&M he has garnered funded research grants of more than $4 million, authored or coauthored three books and has 50 papers published in 31 refereed journals. Ken Brasfield became the seventeenth member. He has compiled an outstanding record of corporate and community leadership in Jackson, Mississippi. He served as president of United Way, Chamber of Commerce, YMCA, Boy Scouts Council, American Cancer Society, Rotary and the Jackson Arts Council.

Dr. Sue Ellen Read was inducted into the Hall of Fame last year. She was named the 2001 Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. She received her Associate Degree from Eastern in 1962, Bachelors Degree from NSU in 1964, Masters from University of Central Oklahoma in 1971 and PhD. from the University of Oklahoma in 1987. She is currently a member of the NSU faculty.