John Mabee was inducted into the Tulsa Hall of Fame in 1995

Eulogized upon his death as “Oklahoma’s Mr. Philanthropy,” John Mabee and his wife, Lottie Jane, arrived in their adopted state in 1907. Coming via Texas, where Mr. Mabee worked in a meat packing plant and waited on tables in a hotel, the Missouri natives homesteaded 160 acres in what is now Cotton County. As a farmer, John Mabee met with little success, and delivered a rural mail route to make ends meet. His fortunes changed two years after his arrival in Oklahoma, when his homestead near Randlett was leased to Carter Oil Company.

The leases in Cotton County proved to be just the beginning of Mr. Mabee’s career in the oil industry. Two phenomenal wells drilled in Burkburnett, Texas, in 1919 were the start of Mr. Mabee’s operations, which mushroomed until Mabee Consolidated Corporation was the world’s largest oil well drilling contractor. From his offices in the Atlas Life Building, Mr. Mabee’s business interests diversified to include banking, insurance, real estate and ranching (one Hereford cattle ranch near Midland was comprised of 110 square miles).

Mr. Mabee’s second career was the business of philanthropy. Although he eventually held honorary doctorates from two universities, he admitted that his education went “only through the third reader.” His gifts to educational institutions throughout the Southwest would provide the educational resources he lacked to the next generation. In Tulsa, his generosity was boundless. A short list of institutions benefiting from his largess includes the Community Chest, the YMCA, Children’s Medical Center, Hillcrest Hospital, Boston Avenue Methodist Church and The University of Tulsa.

Mr. Mabee’s business-like approach to giving money away led him to found the J.E. and L.E. Mabee Foundation in 1948. Through this foundation, Mr. Mabee’s generosity was sustained after his death in 1961, and his magic of turning oil into bricks and mortar continues today.

Ed Lacy was inducted into the Tulsa Hall of Fame in 1995

While the roar of the crowd and the love of the game have their appeal, for Coach Ed Lacy, education is the ultimate goal.

Born in Dallas, Mr. Lacy came to Tulsa at age three. His dedication to athletics began by watching Booker T. Washington football practices while still in grade school. Although he was smaller than his peers, Mr. Lacy won their respect as he participated in basketball, football, baseball and track and field. After being graduated from Washington in 1939, he earned a bachelor’s degree in Physical Education from North Carolina A&T University in Greensboro and a master’s from Columbia University.

He began his career as a coach in 1947 at Voorhees Junior College in South Carolina and held coaching positions in North Carolina and Virginia before returning to Washington in 1957 at the request of Henry Whitlow.

In 17 years of coaching Washington athletics, Mr. Lacy earned the respect of his players and his teams became a source of pride for the segregated African-American community. Mr. Lacy compares the enthusiasm for Washington athletics during his tenure to that of a small town. Fans would caravan for miles to out-of-town games and “last night’s game” was the topic of barbershop conversation. His football teams won five state championships in 1967, 1968, 1969, 1971 and 1973. Mr. Lacy is equally proud of his addition of tennis and wrestling to Washington’s activities. His students in these areas, as well as track and basketball, excelled individually and as teams under his watchful eye. Known as a strict, yet fair, disciplinarian, Mr. Lacy enjoys the appreciation of parents and former players who realize the impact he has had on their quality of life.

Education always came before athletics for Mr. Lacy. Long before there were statistics to back him up, he believed that extra-curricular activities kept students interested in high school. The enormous numbers of college athletic scholarships his students have earned prove that athletics are a means to further education as well.

Ruth G. Hardman was inducted into the Tulsa Hall of Fame in 1995

An active mind matched with boundless energy are the hallmarks of Ruth G. Hardman. As a “hands-on” volunteer, board member or patron, these qualities have allowed Mrs. Hardman to have a dynamic influence on the development of Tulsa.

The daughter of John W. and Vera Chapman Gilliland, Mrs. Hardman was born in Holdenville. The family’s relocation to Tulsa in conjunction with Mr. Gilliland’s business interests brought a young Mrs. Hardman to Tulsa. She would leave only to further her education at Sweet Briar College and the University of Wisconsin. Upon her return, Mrs. Hardman launched herself into a career of volunteer service that continues to this day.

The diversity of Mrs. Hardman’s activities reflects her broad interests. In the field of health and social services, she has served on the boards of Planned Parenthood, Children’s Medical Center, Tulsa Psychiatric Center and the Children’s Day Nursery. Her belief in the primacy of education has led her to a continuing involvement with Holland Hall School, where she serves as an Emeritus Board Member, and the establishment of the Ruth G. Hardman Literacy Program at the Tulsa City/County Library. In Tulsa’s cultural arena, she was a founder of Tulsa Town Hall, a board member for Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa Opera, Tulsa Ballet Theatre, and the Performing Arts Center Endowment Fund.

Mrs. Hardman’s innovative approach to philanthropy has been shared with two institutions in particular. Her endowment of a curatorial chair in European and American Art at Philbrook Museum secures the future of that discipline. And, in an effort to promote her passion for ideas and literature, she is the founder and benefactress of the Hardman/Nimrod Award and Workshops for the Arts and Humanities Council of Tulsa.

Mrs. Hardman’s qualities of talent, imagination and resourcefulness have formed the dynamic which brings her interests and commitment to the fullest, positive expression.

Thomas Gilcrease was inducted into the Tulsa Hall of Fame in 1995

Rooted in nature, self-educated in Western classics, appreciative of Native American mysticism and wise in the ways of the oil business; these are just of few of the qualities attributed to the paradox known as Thomas Gilcrease.

Born in Louisiana in 1890, Mr. Gilcrease was brought by his parents to the Creek Nation only a few months after his birth. From the log house his father built near Eufaula, the young Tom Gilcrease learned to live in harmony with the natural world. A one-room school house provided him with his first taste of formal education under the tutelage of the Creek poet Alex Posey. This initial exposure to the ideas of a larger world fired his imagination and became the basis of his life-long passion, education.

An allotment of 160 acres in 1899 to Mr. Gilcrease, who was one-eighth Creek, changed his life. Oil was discovered under his tract. Uneducated in the technicalities of the oil business, he was at a disadvantage in his early dealings. However, he quickly learned the ropes and became a major player in the industry.

With his newly found wealth, Mr. Gilcrease developed a second career as an art collector. Beginning with his first purchase in 1912, he would travel around the world amassing a collection of American fine art, documents and manuscripts and Native American cultural materials. It was this second career that provided the legacy left by Mr. Gilcrease after his death in 1962, an institution often cited as “Tulsa’s Crown Jewel,” Gilcrease Museum.

Maurice De Vinna was inducted into the Tulsa Hall of Fame in 1995

Before there was an Oklahoma, there was Maurice De Vinna; his birthdate coming several months before statehood. This is quite fitting, as Mr. De Vinna embodies what is best about his native state.

Mr. De Vinna, whose family tree includes branches of prominent pioneer families, attended Phillips Exeter Academy (but, in true Tulsa fashion was graduated from Tulsa Central), and was the first native to be graduated from Harvard University. He received a Carnegie Art Scholarship in 1933 and was the first Oklahoman to earn a degree from the Sorbonne when he received a Brevet d’Art.

His journalistic career, which would span 43 years, began in 1934 with his appointment as Art Critic and Fine Arts Editor for the Tulsa World. Mr. De Vinna’s writing was noted for fairness and for encouraging positive achievements. Many Tulsans attribute the growth of the city’s performing arts organizations to his nurturing criticism.

A competent artist in his own right, Mr. De Vinna won first prize in both the painting and the sculpture categories in the 1934 Tulsa Art Association Annual. His involvement with the visual arts included his work as Director of the Tulsa Art Association. As Director of the local Works Progress Administration, he organized exhibits and educational programs throughout Oklahoma.

Mr. De Vinna was active in the organization of the Tulsa Civic Ballet and still serves on the Board of Directors of what is now Tulsa Ballet Theatre.

His fluency with languages and his knowledge of the Arts were used by the U.S. Army during WWII. Mr. De Vinna worked as an interpreter during the war, was charged with the repatriation of French art works after the war and served as an interpreter at the Nuremberg Trials.

Upon his return to Tulsa, he became a charter member of Alliance Francaise, served as Honorary French Consul and was named Chevalier in the Ordre des Palmes Academiques for the advancement of the French language and culture in 1977. As the city’s unofficial ambassador, the number of friends he has won for the Tulsa is matched only by the number of Tulsans who call Mr. De Vinna “friend.”