Wall of Fame
October 29, 2018
The Foundation for Oklahoma City Public Schools will induct new members into the Wall of Fame on Oct. 29 at the 34th annual Wall of Fame Humanitarian Awards dinner. The 2018 class will join 81 other alumni who have been inducted since the Wall of Fame was created in 1985.
Over the past 34 years, the Wall of Fame has celebrated the long, rich history of Oklahoma City Public Schools (OKCPS). It includes some of the city’s and nation’s most influential business, community and artistic leaders. The awards event will begin with a reception at 6 p.m. and dinner at 7 p.m. on October 29 at the Skirvin Hilton in downtown Oklahoma City.
To sponsor the Wall of Fame event, please contact debby@okckids.com.
2017 Honorees
Dr. William Lee Beasley and Sherry L. Beasley
Ridgeview Elementary School, John Marshall High School
Andrew Johnson Elementary School, John Marshall High School
Dr. Willam Lee and Sherry Beasley have served many educational, professional and philanthropic groups.
Dr. Beasley has been an endodontist in Oklahoma City since 1977. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Central Oklahoma (UCO), a doctor of dental surgery from the University of Iowa and a master’s degree in endodontics. He has been an endodontic instructor at the University of Iowa and the University of Oklahoma, and is past president of the Oklahoma Dental Association (ODA) and the Oklahoma Dental Foundation.
He was recognized by the ODA as the Oklahoma Dentist of the Year in 2006 and received the University of Oklahoma College of Dentistry’s Distinguished Service Award in 2010.
Dr. Beasley has been active in the Boy Scouts of America, March of Dimes, Allied Arts and Oklahoma Mission of Mercy.
Sherry L. Beasley is founder of Oklahoma City interior design firm Interior Images Inc., from which she retired in 2015. She also taught fourth grade in Iowa and California. She graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in education from UCO and later earned a master’s degree in interior design there.
She was a member of the Bishop McGuinness High School building committee and worked on the headquarters for the Oklahoma Dental Association as well as historic properties in Oklahoma City. She dedicates her time to serving on boards for many organizations, including the March of Dimes, the Payne Education Foundation, Allied Arts, the St. Anthony Hospital Foundation and the Oklahoma Historical Society.
In honor of their service to UCO, the Beasleys were selected for the UCO Luminary Society.
They have three sons and nine grandchildren and like to visit as many national parks as possible.
Pete White
Lafayette Elementary, Southeast High School
Pete White is one of Oklahoma City’s most distinguished municipal servants. In April 2017 he retired from representing Ward 4 on the Oklahoma City Council after 19 years. He was the longest-serving member at the time.
White attended Lafayette Elementary School and graduated from Southeast High School. He served in the U.S. Army, then earned an undergraduate degree in business administration from the University of Central Oklahoma before graduating from Oklahoma City University School of Law in 1972.
His four decades of public service include serving on the Oklahoma City Planning Commission, and chairing the Oklahoma City Water Utilities Trust, the Oklahoma City Riverfront Redevelopment Authority and the Oklahoma City Convention and Tourism Trust.
White serves on the Oklahoma City Public Schools/OKC Bond Advisory committee and is a member of the Board of Directors for Catalyst Behavioral Services, a nonprofit corporation involved in recovery programs for drug and alcohol addiction.
He also has a great love for sports, and he served as the vice-chairman and chairman of the Sooner State Games and was a member of the Oklahoma All Sports Association.
Thurman V. White Jr.
Dunbar Elementary, Moon Junior High, John F. Kennedy Junior High, Douglass High School
Thurman V. White Jr.’s family lived in Oklahoma City’s Carverdale, Creston Hills and Park Estates neighborhoods when he was growing up.
He received an academic scholarship to attend Princeton University, where he earned a degree from the School of Public and International Affairs and a certificate in African-American studies.
White worked as a journalist for Newsweek magazine and received a master’s degree in communications from Stanford University and a law degree from the University of California at Berkeley. He has written and produced an award-winning documentary film on Allensworth, California’s only all-black town, and a PBS documentary, “Black Star of the Silver Screen: The Story of Clarence Muse.”
For the past 25 years he has worked to help build and lead U. S. Progress Investment Management Co. LLC, one of the largest African American-owned asset management firms in the nation. He has been recognized by Black Enterprise as one of the 75 Most Powerful Black Professionals on Wall Street.
White serves as a director for the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the nation’s largest community foundation. He also works on the Dr. Bernice P. White-Manning Scholarship at Langston University and the Thurman V. White Jr. Undergraduate Research and Community Engagement Fund at Princeton University.
He is a deacon and ministry leader in his church, and he has been happily married for 15 years. He and his wife, Eileen Domingo White, have eight grandchildren.
2017 Wall of Fame Sponsors
Platinum Sponsors — $5,000
- American Fidelity Foundation
- INASMUCH Foundation/First National Bank of Oklahoma
- Love's Travel Stops and Country Stores
- Progress Investment Management Company LLC, San Francisco, California
- SONIC, America's Drive-In
- Thurman and Eileen White Family
Gold Sponsors — $3,500
- ARVEST Bank
- BancFirst
- Bank SNB
- Beasley Oil Company
- The Center for Education Law
- Cox Communications
- Dobson Technologies
- IBC Bank
- KOCO-TV
- Jeaneen Naifeh
- OGE Energy Corp.
- Oklahoma City Thunder
- OU College of Public Health
- Leadership OKC Class 33
- Leadership OKC Class 34
- Claudia San Pedro
- The Wallace Johnson Family
Silver Sponsors — $1,500
- B.C. Clark Jewelers
- The Chickasaw Nation
- Cemplex Group
- Crowe & Dunlevy
- Devon Energy
- E.L. & Thelma Gaylord Foundation
- Fred Jones Family Foundation
- Greater Oklahoma City Chamber
- Beverly & Herbert Harrison
- MassMutual Oklahoma
- Pat & Ray Potts
- Mona & Scott Sillers
- University of Central Oklahoma
- University of Central Oklahoma College of Mathematics and Science
- Renate & Chuck Wiggin
- Wheeler District
Bronze Sponsors — $500
- Accel Financial Staffing/Meg Salyer
- The Alliance for Economic Development of Oklahoma City
- Antioch Energy
- Bank of America
- VI Marketing & Branding
- Mr. & Mrs. G.T. Blankenship
- Maj Gen WP Bowden, USAF retired
- Leona M. Bridges
- Candor
- The Honorable Mr & Mrs. Timothy D. DeGiusti
- The First State Bank
- Senator Kay Floyd
- Kay & Richard Floyd
- Shannon & Chip Fudge
- Gooden Group
- HoganTaylor
- Vernita & Marion Humphrey
- Johnson Controls
- The Kerr Foundation, Inc.
- Midtown Renaissance
- Donna & George Nigh
- Oklahoma City Community College
- Pilgrim Baptist Church
- The Presley Family
- SandRidge Energy
- Shirley & Ben Shanker
- Silicon Valley Community Foundation
- Silver Stone Homes
- Jeanne Hoffman Smith
- St. Anthony Foundation
- TAP Architecture
- Marnie & Clayton Taylor
- The Honorable & Mrs. Ralph G. Thompson
- Joan & Tommy Thompson
- Molly & Miles Tolbert
- Trochta's Flowers
- The Walton Family Foundation
- Watts & Associates
Through the Years: Wall of Fame Humanitarian Award Honorees
| Bob Barry Sr., 2009 | Wanda Jackson, 2013 |
| Skip Bayless, 2008 | Wallace Johnson, 2004 |
| G.T. Blankenship, 1999 | Commissioner Willa Johnson, 2015 |
| Ronald E. Bogle, 2016 | Lou Kerr, 2001 |
| Jo Carol Cameron, 2013 | Eleanor Blake Kirkpatrick, 1990 |
| B.C. Clark, Jr., 1998 | John Elson Kirkpatrick, 1990 |
| Jim C. Clark, 2010 | Linda Lambert, 2004 |
| Dr. Benton C. Clark III, 2015 | Mona Salyer Lambird, 1996 |
| Richard H. Clements, 1997 | James Loftis, 2013 |
| Andrew M. Coats, 1998 | J.W. Mashburn, 2002 |
| Edward H. Cook, 2014 | Aubrey McClendon, 2011 |
| Wayne Coyne, 2007 | The Honorable Vicki Miles-LaGrange, 2006 |
| Admiral William J. Crowe, 1987 | Bobby R. Murcer, 1994 |
| Edgar Cruz, 2004 | Donna Nigh, 1997 |
| James R. Daniel, 2009 | Mayor James H. Norick, 1992 |
| The Honorable Timothy D. DeGiusti, 2012 | Madalynne Norick, 1992 |
| Marion Briscoe DeVore, 1988 | Mayor Ronald J. Norick, 1995 |
| L. Thomas Dulaney Jr., 2008 | Paul B. Odom, Jr., 2004 |
| Rand Elliot, 2011 | Russell M. Perry, 2000 |
| Dr. Robert S. Ellis, 2000 | Paula B. Pretlow, 2016 |
| Ralph W. Ellison, 1994 | Allie P. Reynolds, 1994 |
| Harvey P. Everest, 1985 | William J. Ross, 2005 |
| David G. Fitzgerald, 2014 | Thom Shanker, 2012 |
| Kris Frankfurt, 2007 | Jeanne Hoffman Smith, 2000 |
| William Frankfurt, 2007 | Lee Allan Smith, 1989 |
| Mex Rodman Frates, 1986 | Horace Stevenson, 2014 |
| Rodman Frates, 2006 | Lela Bennett Sullivan, 2003 |
| Prentice Gautt, 2012 | Kathy Taylor, 2015 |
| Vince Gill, 2001 | The Honorable Ralph G. Thompson, 2003 |
| Alan C. Greenberg, 1993 | Erik Logan Toppenberg, 2011 |
| Rubye Hibler Hall, 2002 | Christopher C. Turner, 2003 |
| V. Burns Hargis, 2002 | Marylin Jones Upsher, 2006 |
| Edith Gaylor Harper, 1999 | Helen Ford Wallace, 2005 |
| Joyce Henderson, 2012 | Larkin Warner, 2011 |
| Dannie Bea Hightower, 2001 | Anthony L. Watson, 2010 |
| Carolyn Hill, 2008 | A. Max Weitzenhoffer, Jr., 2010 |
| Sarah Hogan, 1999 | Mason Williams, 2016 |
| J. Clifford Hudson, 2009 | Stanton L. Young, 1991 |
| Kirk Humphreys, 2007 |