William R. & Hope Holway were inducted into the Tulsa Hall of Fame in 1989

William R. and Hope Holway dedicated themselves to building Tulsa from beneath the ground up.  As the designer of the Spavinaw Water System, Mr. Holway and his company, W.R. Holway & Associates, provided Tulsa with a supply of potable water.  The completion of that water system in 1924 has proven to be the underpinnings of the city’s growth.  Mrs. Holway, an active partner in the engineering business, was an active historian and published author, with books on women in Indian Territory and the history of the Grand River Dam Authority.  Many of Tulsa’s cultural institutions benefited from the Holways’ efforts; Mrs. Holway served as the first president of Tulsa Little Theater and spent thousands of volunteer hours with the collection at Gilcrease Museum.  Together the Holways were instrumental in founding All Souls Unitarian Church.

Daniel J. Boorstin was inducted into the Tulsa Hall of Fame in 1989

Daniel J. Boorstin has taken principles nurtured by a Tulsa upbringing and has brought them to bear on the national intellectual stage.  The son of Samuel Boorstin, a fondly remembered Tulsa attorney, he is a graduate of Tulsa Central High School.  Boorstin’s reputation as a leading American historian is based upon his authorship of many volumes, including the influential trilogy, The Americans.  He served for twenty-five years as the Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago and is a former director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of History and Technology.  His elevation to the post of Librarian of Congress placed Boorstin at the center of current American political thought.

William G. Skelly was inducted into the Tulsa Hall of Fame in 1989

William G. Skelly was the embodiment of the qualities which earned for Tulsa the title “Oil Capital of the World.”  When Skelly arrived in Tulsa in 1912, he was already a seasoned veteran of the oil industry.   With the founding of Skelly Oil in 1919, a bond was forged between Skelly and Tulsa that would last for generations.  His devotion to the city is evidenced by the growth of the University of Tulsa, the Tulsa Municipal Airport, the YMCA and many more institutions which relied upon Skelly’s determination and his famous “stud horse note” for their very existence.

Janice C. Jones was inducted into the Tulsa Hall of Fame in 1989

Janice C. Jones believed that a community’s health was only as good as the health of its individual citizens.  As a registered nurse, she began working for the Public Health Service in 1926.  Despite severely inadequate resources, Nurse Jones rendered a variety of clinical services from a small clinic on Archer Street for twenty years.  She extended the scope of her medical services throughout north Tulsa with visits to the homebound, the elderly and in special clinics on pediatrics, tuberculosis and prenatal care.  Nurse Jones’ untiring efforts for health care in north Tulsa resulted in the establishment of the Variety Health Center in 1945.

George & Josiah Perryman were inducted into the Tulsa Hall of Fame in 1989

George and Josiah Perryman, members of a family who first arrived in the Tulsa area in 1848, were pioneer Tulsans who reflect the city’s vibrant Creek heritage.  Following his return to the area after the Civil War, George operated a vast cattle ranch that encompassed an area roughly equivalent to the boundaries of current day Tulsa south of Eleventh Street.  The ranch house, known as “The White House,” was the center of social, religious and business activity for the Tulsa area.  In 1878 Josiah became the city’s first postmaster and is credited with giving the name “Tulsa” to the settlement by the Arkansas River.