Sid W. Patterson was inducted into the Tulsa Hall of Fame in 2001

Sid Patterson just might have had something to do with Oklahoma being Green Country.  He planted his first tree, a cedar, in his back yard when he was 12, and it now stands 30 feet tall.  As a founder and first president of Up With Trees, during the past 25 years he has been largely responsible for planting more than 13,000 other trees in 345 sites around town.  A civil engineer who spent 26 years with Patterson Steel in Tulsa, he also served two terms as street commissioner in the 1950s, and two more in the 1970s.  He and his wife, Beverly, will celebrate their 55th wedding anniversary this year.

Bob Parker was inducted into the Tulsa Hall of Fame in 2001

Bob Parker, a Tulsa native, started his success early.  He was only 16 when he won the World’s Open Skeet Championship.  He graduated from Culver Military Academy and earned a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Texas.  In 1954, he purchased Parker Drilling from his father, an Illinois farmer who had founded the company 20 years earlier.  Today, Parker Drilling is a world leader in deep drilling and is recognized for having opened China and the Soviet Union to Western drilling techniques.  His role as a petroleum industry leader was recognized when then-President Ronald Reagan tapped him to be the chairman of the U.S. Energy Policy Task Force.

Peter & Nancy Meinig were inducted into the Tulsa Hall of Fame in 2001

The Meinigs were born in Reading, Pa. and graduated from Cornell University.  Pete also earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and is chairman of HM International.  For 14 years, the couple lived in Mexico City where Peter worked for several joint-venture companies and where Nancy’s volunteer career began.  In 1980, they moved to Tulsa and continued their interest in charitable and civic organizations, particularly with their support of the University of Tulsa.

Nelle Jackson was inducted into the Tulsa Hall of Fame in 2001

Miss Jackson’s, one of Tulsa’s longtime traditions, of fashion excellence, came about because of the woman from whom it is named.  Nelle Shields Jackson gave up a job as a personal shopper in the McCreery and Co. Department Store in Pittsburgh, Pa. to move to Oklahoma at the age of 35.  She worked for two years as a corsetiere at what would become Vandevers.  The first Miss Jackson’s shop sold lingerie on the balcony of a jewelry store.  As the shop grew in size, it moved three times before becoming the first tenant of the new Philtower Building in 1928.  Nelle retired in the 1950s and died in 1966, but her shop, now located in Utica Square, remains.  It has been owned and operated by Bill Fisher Jr. since 1967

Wilson Hurley was inducted into the Tulsa Hall of Fame in 2001

Wilson Hurley, the only son of Patrick J. Hurley (above) grew up knowing how to meet presidents and other world leaders.  His path, however, would take him far from the corridors of power and into the grandeur of nature.  Wilson graduated from West Point and George Washington Law School, but gave up careers in the military, law and engineering to devote himself to painting.  He is known for this use of dramatic broad landscapes to communicate his passion and reverence for the beauty of the world.  He has also been a featured artist at Gilcrease Museum’s Rendezvous.

Patrick J. Hurley was inducted into the Tulsa Hall of Fame in 2001

The late Patrick Hurley was born in Indian Territory, practiced law in Tulsa and had a distinguished diplomatic career.  In the 1920s he invested in real estate and built Oklahoma’s first apartment-hotel, the Ambassador.  As secretary of war under President Hoover, he was the first Oklahoma to serve in a presidential cabinet.  In World War II, he became a brigadier general and an emissary to Russia.  He capped his diplomatic career as ambassador to China.  Pictured: Patrick J. Hurley as Secretary of War, c. 1930.