Oklahoma Hall of Fame Names 2009 Honorees

News9.com

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Seven Oklahomans have been selected for induction into the 82nd class of the Oklahoma Hall of Fame.

The 2009 nominees are: C. Kendric Fergeson, Altus; Marlin G. "Ike" Glass, Jr., Newkirk; V. Burns Hargis, Stillwater; Polly A. Nichols, Oklahoma City; Lee Roy Selmon, Eufaula; Steven W. Taylor, McAlester; and Wayman Lawrence Tisdale, Tulsa, who will be inducted posthumously.

Oklahoma Hall of Fame 2009 Honorees

The 82nd Oklahoma Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and Banquet will be held Thursday, Nov. 12 at the Renaissance Tulsa Hotel and Convention Center.

For ticket and sponsorship information as well as information about making a nomination, contact Millie Craddick, executive administrator of the Oklahoma Hall of Fame, at 405.523.3203 or e-mail her at mc@oklahomaheritage.com.

The 2009 inductees will also be recognized in November with the addition of their portraits to the other 628 honorees from across the years at the Oklahoma Hall of Fame Gallery at the Gaylord-Pickens Oklahoma Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.

For more information about the Museum, call 405.235.4458 or visit www.oklahomaheritage.com.

Biographical Information Provided by Oklahoma Heritage Association
Gaylord-Pickens Oklahoma Heritage Museum:

C. Kendric Fergeson

With economic degrees from Texas Tech, Ken Fergeson commenced his banking career in Oklahoma City before purchasing the majority of NBC Bank in Altus in 1985 and settling his family in southeast Oklahoma.

Fergeson has played key roles in the banking industry, including serving as chairman of the American Bankers Association, the Oklahoma Bankers Association and the Oklahoma State Chamber. He is currently chairman of Creative Oklahoma and the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics Foundation and serves on the Native American Cultural and Education Authority and the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority by governor appointments. He has previously chaired the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence and Oklahoma Academy.

Fergeson's interest in supporting the arts is exemplified by his role as national treasurer for American for Arts. His belief in the importance of the arts has led him to serve on boards for the Oklahoma Arts Council, the Oklahoma Arts Institute, the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, the Mid-America Arts Alliance, Quartz Mountain Music Festival, and the Shortgrass Arts and Humanities Council. Fergeson and NBC Bank created the Oklahoma Artists Series, commissioning paintings and distributing their prints and posters to customers.

Fergeson and his wife, Mary Ann, are the parents of a son, Jarrod and a daughter, Casey.

Marlin G. "Ike" Glass, Jr.

Glass, a patriot, entrepreneur and successful businessman in Newkirk, learned a strong work ethic from his father while participating in the family-owned trucking business as a young man. Glass is now CEO of the company and has turned it into a major enterprise that operates throughout the Midwest.

After graduating from Newkirk High School, Glass joined the U.S. Navy, serving in the Korean conflict for four years. He returned to graduate from Oklahoma State University with a degree in business administration, where he met and married Marybeth Brunsteter. They have two children, Rob and Jennifer, and three grandchildren.

Glass is most highly thought of for his efforts to make higher education and post-secondary education available to all children and citizens of our state. He has financially supported multiple scholarship programs and given encouragement and financial assistance to many young people, enabling them to pursue higher education.

He served as president of the Newkirk School Board, past president of the OSU Alumni Association and, in 1997, Gov. Frank Keating appointed Glass to the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education for a nine-year term. In 2007, he was reappointed by Governor Brad Henry. Glass served as president of the Oklahoma Transportation Center, vice chair of the Governors Conference on Small Business, president of the Oklahoma Trucking Association and chairman of the State Chamber of Commerce.

V. Burns Hargis

V. Burns Hargis has been a passionate and creative Oklahoma leader for nearly 40 years. Today he serves as the 18th president of Oklahoma State University. He is only the second OSU graduate to serve as president and holds degrees in accounting from OSU and in law from the University of Oklahoma.

Hargis has brought incredible enthusiasm and energy to OSU. Shortly after becoming president, Hargis led a record-setting fund-raising initiative. He has a bold vision of creating a modern land-grant university that combines disciplines to better prepare students for a new world.

Prior to becoming president of OSU, Hargis had a distinguished banking and legal career and led many active civic and philanthropic initiatives. Hargis was a candidate for the Republication nomination for governor of Oklahoma in 1990 and is familiar to many Oklahomans through the political perspective and wit he provided on the award-winning television program "Flashpoint."

A firm believer in the power of imagination and collaboration, Hargis was the first chair of the Oklahoma Creativity Project, which seeks to catalyze a culture of creativity in culture, commerce and education.

Hargis and his wife, Ann, have two married children and three grandchildren.

Polly A. Nichols

Polly Nichols, community volunteer and philanthropist, has served Oklahoma nonprofits most of her life. Born in McAlester, she has been involved with more than 20 organizations since moving to Oklahoma City in 1971.

A survivor of the Oklahoma City bombing, she co-chaired the $29.1 million dollar fund-raising drive to build the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum and continues to serve on the Memorial board. She has served as chair of the Memorial, Oklahoma City Junior League, Science Museum Oklahoma and the Oklahoma Center for Nonprofits, where she has worked to build a coalition of nonprofits in Oklahoma.

In addition to her volunteer experience, Nichols served as executive director of the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence from 1990 to 1997, a period of substantial growth for the organization. She was co-chair of the founding Juliette Low Leadership Society Luncheon for Girl Scouts-Western Oklahoma, co-chair of the first Reflections of Hope event for the Memorial, co-chair of the Allied Arts Fund drive, and with her husband, Larry, co-chair of the 2007 United Way fund drive.

She is currently serving on the boards of INTEGRIS Baptist Medical Center, the United Way and the University of Oklahoma Foundation.

Lee Roy Selmon

Lee Roy Selmon and his two brothers gave the University of Oklahoma one of the greatest football defenses in history, winning back-to-back national championships in 1975 and 1976.

After graduating from high school in Eufaula, Selmon attended the University of Oklahoma, where he earned a degree in special education. While at OU, he was named a National Football Foundation National Scholar and an All-American in 1974 and 1975. He also earned the Vince Lombardi Award for top lineman in the nation and the Outland Trophy Award.

Selmon was the first player drafted into the NFL in 1976. He was inducted into the GTE/CoSIDA Academic Hall of Fame and was the first Sooner to be enshrined in the NFL Hall of Fame. He was selected to Pro-Bowl six times and was named NFL Defensive Player of the Year. Selman was nominated for the NFL's Byron "Whizzer" White Award for Humanitarian Service, and the state of Florida has named a major Hillsborough County Expressway the "Lee Roy Selmon Expressway."

Selmon was hired as associate director of athletics of the University of Southern Florida in 1994 in preparation for the university's initiation of intercollegiate football. Prior to joining the USF Bulls, he had a successful banking career that began while he was still playing for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Steven W. Taylor

Vice Chief Justice Steven W. Taylor, McAlester, earned his B.A. from Oklahoma State
University in 1971 and his Juris Doctor from the University of Oklahoma in 1974. He joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1970 and served on active duty from 1974 to 1978. In 1977 he became the youngest judge in the U.S. Armed Forces and was promoted to the rank of Major.

In 1982 he was elected mayor of McAlester, the youngest in the city's history, and a multi-million dollar industrial park has since been named for him in recognition of his economic development efforts.

Taylor was inducted into the Oklahoma State University Hall of Fame and has received the Regents Alumni Award from the University of Oklahoma, making him the only person to have received the highest alumni recognition from both schools.

Taylor was a district judge for 21 years and presided over more than 500 jury trials, including the Terry Nichols Oklahoma City bombing case. In 2004, Taylor was appointed to the Supreme Court of Oklahoma.

During the Oklahoma Centennial year, Oklahoma magazine named Justice Taylor as one of the "100 Who Shaped Us," a list of living and past Oklahomans who influenced the first 100 years of our state.

Wayman Lawrence Tisdale

Known as both a successful basketball player and jazz musician, the 6'9" Tulsa native spent three years at the University of Oklahoma before his 12 seasons in the NBA, including stints with the Indiana Pacers, Sacramento Kings and the Phoenix Suns. Tisdale then became an award-wining jazz musician, with several of his albums making the top 10 on the Billboard charts.

In 1983, Tisdale became the first freshman to make The Associated Press' first-team All America list, which he repeated twice more. He averaged 25.6 points and 10.1 rebounds per game during his seasons with the Sooners, earning Big Eight Conference player of the year each season.

He stills holds OU's career scoring record with 2,661 points and career rebounding record with 1,048. He played on the U.S. team that won the gold medal in the 1984 Olympic Games and went on to average 15.3 points per game during his professional career. In April, Tisdale learned he had been chosen for induction into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.

Tisdale first learned he had a cancerous cyst below his right knee in February 2007. His leg was amputated last August, after which he wore a crimson prosthetic in honor of his beloved Oklahoma Sooners. To help others going through the same ordeal, he formed The Wayman Tisdale Foundation to counsel amputees and help them afford the prosthetic process.

Tisdale lost his two-year battle with cancer at the age of 44 on May 15 at St. John Medical Center in Tulsa. After learning of and accepting his selection as a member of the 2009 Oklahoma Hall of Fame class in April, Tisdale was looking forward to his November induction.