Major Charles E. Snyder, USAF (Retired) was inducted into the Tulsa Hall of Fame in 2007

Charles E. “C.E.” Snyder was born in Topeka, Kansas, in 1931 and attended grade and high school in Silver Lake, KS. In 1949 he enrolled at Washburn College in Topeka, graduating in 1953. Commissioned as a USAF officer, he served in the Korean War and later in the Vietnam War and several other military deployments… His last posting was as Operations Officer at the National War College at Fort Lesley J. McNair in Washington, DC.

Major Snyder’s commitment to the downtown Tulsa’s real estate market which began nearly a decade ago when he acquired the famed Mayo Hotel at 5th and Cheyenne Streets. When the hotel faced the possibility of destruction, he took on the project to renovate this grand hotel and landmark into a showplace rising like the phoenix from the ashes from 20 years of neglect. Through his efforts, he recreated this historic hotel into a social and cultural center. Governor Henry’s Inaugural Ball held there in January 2007. Major Snyder continues his commitment to the revitalization of downtown Tulsa by being a major player in the recent acquisition of several other properties close to the Mayo that are now in the early stages of redevelopment.

To his extensive collection of photographs of American historical personalities, he has added over 250 museum quality signed photographs and documents concerning many of the noted historical figures who graced the Mayo with their presence from 1925 to 1955. Additionally, he has 20 original architectural drawings of major historical Tulsa landmarks;

Major Snyder now lives in Bowie MD with his wife Bonnie. The Snyder’s have four sons and 12 grandchildren.

John T. Nickel was inducted into the Tulsa Hall of Fame in 2007

John T. Nickel is a native Oklahoman. He was born in Muskogee and graduated from Muskogee Central. He attended Connors State College in Warner, Oklahoma and the Southern California Institute of Architecture in Santa Monica, California.

He is passionate about many things: fly fishing, horses, building and restoration projects, wildlife conservation, protection of natural lands and water, architecture, landscape architecture, horticulture, ranching, farming, wine, travel, exercise and skiing.

His business and philanthropic interests reflect his passions.

Nickel’s business interests include Greenleaf Nursery Company; which now have locations in Oklahoma, Texas, and North Carolina, the Far Niente Winery & Vineyards in Napa Valley, California, the Nickel & Nickel Winery & Vineyards in Napa Valley, California, Greenland Investments, the Caney Creek Ranch, the J-5 Ranch and Caney Creek Quarter Horses.

His passion for wildlife, land and water conservation led him to donate 14,000 to the Nature Conservancy for a wildlife and nature preserve in 2000. He dedicated the visitor center at the Nickel Preserve in 2003 and saw a dream fulfilled with the reintroduction of elk to the Nickel Preserve in 2005. He was recognized with a wildlife stewardship award by Nature Works in 2004 and was a recipient of the Nature Conservancy’s first Oak Leaf Award in 2006.

In 1998, he was recognized as the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the year.

He serves on the boards of the Greenleaf Nursery Company, the Far Niente Winery & Vineyards, Dolce Winery & Vineyards, Greenland Investments, The Nature Conservancy and the Oklahoma Heritage Association.

Nickel is married to Julie Michelle Nickel. They have five children and two grandchildren. The family divides their time between residences in Tulsa and their ranch, the Caney Creek Ranch in Welling, Oklahoma

Richard and Sally Minshall were inducted into the Tulsa Hall of Fame in 2007

Richard Minshall’s grandfather came to Tulsa in 1901 from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania for an oil company. As a third generation Tulsan, Minshall says it has been his good fortune to grow up, marry and raise a family here in Tulsa.

Minshall graduated from Central High School, from the University of Oklahoma and received an LLB from the University of Virginia Law School in 1964.

His earliest career was as a stock broker and branch manager. In 1972, he joined the Fourth National Bank of Tulsa Trust Department as vice president and investment officer and became the top performing equity manager in the United States in 1976.

In 1978, he founded Capital Advisors, Inc. a registered investment advisory firm. Capital Advisors currently has $900 million under management with offices in Tulsa Dallas and Houston. In addition to portfolio management, the firm provided financing for three leveraged buyouts and arranged reverse mergers to take each company public. In 2000 the firm launched a no-load open end mutual fund, the Capital Advisors Growth Fund trading under the symbol CIAOX.

Minshall’s previous board positions include the following; Monte Cassino School, Holland Hall School, Mary Baldwin College, Phibrook Museum of Art, Natureworks, the Salvation Army, Financial News Composite Fund, Inc., the Tulsa Historical Society, AAON, Inc., Westwood Corp. and the Tulsa Club.

His current board positions include: Capital Advisors, Inc., First National Bank of Broken Arrow, Broken Arrow Community Foundation, American Gilsonite Company and Catholic Charities of Tulsa.

Minshall is also a member of the Oklahoma Bar Association and he and wife are members of Southern Hills Country Club.

Sally Howard Minshall is a native Tulsan, a graduate of Central High School and the University of Oklahoma where she graduated Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa, and was the Sweetheart of Sigma Chi in 1958 and 1959.

Minshall has served as the president of Junior League, president of the Tulsa Philharmonic Society and chair of the Tulsa International Mayfest and board of directors. She has also served on the boards of the Philbrook Museum of Art and The Arts and Humanities Council.

She has chaired the Cinderella Ball for the Tulsa Philharmonic, the Fall Gala for the Philbrook Museum of Art and the Pink Ribbon Benefit for Tulsa Project Woman

The Minshalls have enjoyed collaborating together on many community activities. Together they created the Masters Society at the Philbrook Museum of Art and the William Booth Society for the Salvation Army. The Masters Society and the William Booth Society continue to be important annual fundraisers for each charity. They also co-chaired the Tulsa benefit for the National Jewish Hospital.

As a team, the Minshalls sponsored a Vietnamese refugee for resettlement in Tulsa, They also co-chaired the Catholic Charities Campaign, “Mission of Hope-Changing Lives with Love,” raising $19,000,000 for construction of a new campus facility at Apache and North Harvard.

The Minshalls married in 1960 and have two daughters, Bonnie and Melissa. The family divides its time between, Tulsa, Crested Butte, and their farm in Missouri, “Wild Acres.”

Joe Craft was inducted into the Tulsa Hall of Fame in 2007

A native of Hazard, KY, Joseph W. Craft III came to Tulsa in 1980 to join MAPCO Inc. MAPCO was an integrated energy company founded by fellow Tulsa Hall of Fame member Robert E. Thomas.

In 1996, Craft led a management buyout of MAPCO’s coal operations after serving as that company’s president for ten years. During 1999, Alliance Resource Partners, L.P. (NASDAQ: “ARLP”) was formed and became the coal industry’s first publicly traded limited partnership. Since then, ARLP has grown through acquisitions and internal development to become the fourth largest coal producer in the eastern United States. In June 2007, ARLP was recognized by Business Week as the fourteenth hottest growth company in the United States, the fifth consecutive year the company made the annual list of “100 Hot Growth Companies”.

He is currently President, CEO and a director of ARLP and also serves as President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Alliance Holdings GP, L.P. which is a second publicly traded limited partnership. Both Partnerships maintain their corporate headquarters in Tulsa.

Mr. Craft holds a bachelor’s degree in Accounting and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Kentucky. Mr. Craft also is a graduate of the Senior Executive Program of the Alfred P. Sloan School of Management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He has served in various industry leadership positions and is currently serving as a member of the Board of Trustees for the University of Tulsa and a director for the Bank of Oklahoma.

Craft and his wife Kathy are the proud parents of four children, J.W., Caroline, Ryan and Kyle and have two grandchildren, Jake and Kingsley. The Craft family has a reputation for generously supporting social services and education in the Tulsa area as well as the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

Howard and Billie Barnett were inducted into the Tulsa Hall of Fame in 2007

Born in Kansas City, MO, Howard G. Barnett was immediately adopted by Florence Lloyd Jones Barnett and Howard G. Barnett. They brought him to Tulsa which has been his home ever since. He graduated from Edison High School and received his B.S.B.A. from the University of Tulsa and a Juris Doctorate from Southern Methodist University.

Barnett began his career in 1975 as a business lawyer in Tulsa specializing in securities offerings and corporate transactions primarily for the growing number of entrepreneurial oil and gas companies. In 1985, he joined Tribune Swab-Fox Companies Inc. as executive vice president and COO of its daily newspaper subsidiary, Tulsa Tribune Company. He eventually became chairman and CEO of the parent company, leading a significant turnaround resulting in its sale to V,S & A Media Partners II in 1997.

Barnett entered state government in 1998 as secretary of commerce for Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating and as the director of the Oklahoma Department of Commerce. In 1999, he became Governor Keating’s chief of staff serving until the end of Keating’s term in January 2003. He is now managing director of TSF Capital, LLC in Tulsa, a firm providing specialized merchant banking services to small companies.

Barnett’s civic activities include the Tulsa Metro Chamber, Leadership Oklahoma, Holland Hall School, Tulsa Industrial Authority, and Hillcrest Hospital. He was a member of the Governor’s Council on Science and Technology and Tulsa’s Centennial Celebration Committee.

He is currently a board member of the Philbrook Museum of Art, Leadership Oklahoma, The Center for Nonprofits, Youth Services of Tulsa, the Oklahoma City National Memorial and the Oklahoma Academy.

In 2006, Barnett was the Republican nominee for state treasurer of Oklahoma.

Billie Barnett gradated from high school in Kirkwood, MO and from Texas Woman’s University in Dallas, Texas with bachelors in Nursing. She then served on the RN nursing staff at Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas and on the Nursing School faculty for Tulsa Junior College in Tulsa.

Barnett has received numerous awards for her civic and philanthropic leadership including: the Elizabeth K. Doenges Award from the Tulsa Arts and Humanities Council, the Governor’s Arts Award, The Marilyn Douglas Memorial Award from the Oklahoma Arts Council, the Pinnacle Award from the Mayor’s Commission on the Status of Women, the March of Dimes Great Spirit Award, the National Philanthropy Day Outstanding Volunteer fundraiser awarded from the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

She has served on the Oklahoma Arts Council, the American Heart Association, the Tulsa Philharmonic and the Child Abuse Network Advisory Board. Currently she serves on the boards of the Tulsa Ballet, the Tulsa Community College Foundation, the Salvation Army Advisory Board, the Oklahoma Arts Institute, the Price Tower Arts Center, the Mid America Arts Alliance and Family and Children’s Services Advisory Board. She is a sustaining member of the Junior League of Tulsa and alumnae and past president of Kappa Alpha Theta.

The Barnett’s have two daughters, Adrienne and Allison.

Together they have chaired or co-chaired many fundraising activities for nonprofits in Tulsa including the following: Hillcrest CrestFest, the Hillcrest Gala, The Ballet Ball, the capital campaign for Youth Services of Tulsa, the Holland Hall Annual Fund, the Heart Ball, the committee to pass State Questions 680 and 681, the Tulsa Ballet Founder’s Society, Leadership Oklahoma Gala, the Annual Fund drive for Tulsa Community College Foundation, the fundraising arm to pass Vision 2025, the Helmerich Award Dinner for the Tulsa Public Library, the Salvation Army Benefit Dinner, Tulsa’s Celebration of the Oklahoma Centennial, the Philbrook Wine Experience.

They are the Directors of the Barnett Family Foundation.