Richard B. Williamson was inducted into the Tulsa Hall of Fame in 2009

Richard B. (Dick) Williamson’s influence in his chosen industry circles the globe, and the same reach touches humanitarian needs in this country and overseas.  Richard B. (Dick) Williamson is a native Tulsan and is Chairman of the Board of T. D. Williamson, Inc.   TDW provides a range of engineered products and services oriented toward the pipeline, gas distribution, and refining/hydrocarbon process industries.  The Company, founded in 1920, operates subsidiaries and branches in 28 countries, and has its corporate and primary manufacturing facilities in Tulsa.

Williamson received a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Oklahoma and Masters of Business Administration from Northwestern University.  He also attended the Stanford University Executive Development Program in 1982.  He started with T. D. Williamson in 1971.  He was named Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer in 1979 and assumed the position of President and Chief Executive Officer in 1992.  He was elected Chairman of the Board in 1994.

He is a leader in the pipeline, natural gas, and related industries. Among other activities, he is a member of the American Gas Foundation Board of Trustees and serves on the ASME/IPTI (International Petroleum Technology Institute) Board and has worked to organize four international ASME conferences related to pipeline technology.

Actively involved in the community, he serves on the National Salvation Army Advisory Board and the boards of the Tulsa Area Command of the Salvation Army, the Oklahoma State Chamber of Commerce, and i2E (formerly the Oklahoma Technology Development Corporation).  He has served on the University of Tulsa-College of Business Advisory Board, the Oklahoma International Congress Advisory Board, and Tulsa Global Alliance.  He is a past chair of the Tulsa Workforce Investment Board and the Governor’s International Team, and Vice Chair of the Tulsa Committee on Foreign Relations.  He is also a board member of the Tulsa Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, the Pipe Liners Club of Tulsa, and the First Presbyterian Church of Tulsa.

He and his wife Janetta were married in 1966.  He has two children, Emily and Brooks, and three grandchildren.

Dick Williamson has shown that working with and helping your neighbor improves your life and theirs, no matter whether the neighbor is across the fence or on the other side of the world.

Clayton Vaughn was inducted into the Tulsa Hall of Fame in 2009

“The Dean of Tulsa Television,” Clayton Vaughn’s broadcast journalism career spanned nearly half a century.   He retired from broadcasting in 1999 and became Executive Director of the Tulsa Historical Society, helping develop its new Tulsa midtown home.   He retired from the society in 2006 and remains active in community affairs.

Born in Kansas and raised in Cushing, Vaughn is married to Nancy Vaughn and has four children and three grandsons.

Vaughn’s broadcast career began at a radio station in Cushing in his senior year in high school.   He moved to Tulsa in 1958, becoming News Director for radio station KAKC. He moved to KOTV in 1964, becoming News Director and anchor.  There he hired Tulsa’s first female news anchor and first black news anchor, instituted legislative coverage, and gave local education and civil rights issues high priority.  He reported from nine national political conventions, traveled to Vietnam to report on area military service men and women, anchored from the Oklahoma City Federal Building bombing site, presided over scores of political debates, and interviewed innumerable people from all walks of life.

Vaughn left Tulsa twice, hired by KABC-TV in Los Angeles as anchor-reporter from 1969 through 1971 and then in 1978-1979 by WNET New York/ NJPTV New Jersey as one of the first anchors for the New Jersey Nightly News.  His work at KOTV after his return from the west coast included five years as News Director and anchor of Oklahoma’s first and, to date, only 6 PM News Hour, which brought magazine style reporting and news commentary to Tulsa television.

He has been president of the local Society of Professional Journalists and Oklahoma Associated Press Broadcasters, and received the first media award from Tulsa NCCJ and an Oklahoma Education Association award for education commentary on House Bill 1017.

Vaughn is a member of the Oklahoma Broadcasters Hall of Fame, received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Heartland Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the Tulsa People Readers’ Choice Award for “Best Anchor of the 1990’s,” and was named among the first “Tulsa Television Icons” by the Tulsa Press Club.

Clayton Vaughn and television news came of age together.  He set the standard for his craft and his community and earned its trust.

Michael P. Johnson was inducted into the Tulsa Hall of Fame in 2009

“Human Resources” takes on a new meaning when applied to Michael P. Johnson.  He graduated from North Carolina Central University with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration in 1969.  That year Johnson began his professional career as a human resources trainee with the RCA Corporation.  He is also a graduate of the Advanced Executive Program of the Kellogg School of Business at Northwestern University.

He lives in Tulsa with his wife Libby.  They have two sons, Michael Jr. and Paul.

Johnson retired from The Williams Companies in 2008 after having served as Williams’ Senior Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer and Chairman of the board for the Williams Foundation. He was responsible for leading all aspects of the company’s Shared Services Units.

Prior to joining Williams, Johnson held officer level positions for Amoco Corporation, including Vice President of Human Resources.  He also held professional, managerial, and executive positions with Martin Marietta Corporation, now Lockheed Martin.  Johnson is a director of CenterPoint Energy, Patriot Coal Corporation, Buffalo Wild Wings Inc., and the QuikTrip Corporation.

His current community involvement includes serving as trustee of both Oklahoma State University-Tulsa and Bethune-Cookman University, executive board member of the Oklahoma Conference for Community and Justice, and board member of the Oklahoma Affiliate of the Health Care Service Corporation and the Tiger Woods Foundation.

Johnson previously served as board chairman of the Foundation for Tulsa Schools. He served on the boards of the Tulsa Community College Foundation, the Tulsa Industrial Authority, the Board of Visitors of North Carolina Central University School of Business, the Amoco Foundation, the Metropolitan Orlando Urban League, the Orange County Branch of the NAACP, and the Orlando Aviation Authority.

He awards include the Oklahoma State University Inclusion Leadership Award, the Tulsa Board of Education’s Light Keeper’s Award, the Tulsa Community College Vision Award in education leadership, the Foundation for Tulsa Schools’ Excellence in Education Award, 100 Black Men of Tulsa’s Hall of Honor Community Service Award, the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame’s Community Excellence Award, and the Boy Scouts of America Whitney M. Young Award.

Michael Johnson’s parallel careers in business and in the community demonstrate how concern for people creates benefits for all on both tracks of service.

Linda Sellen Frazier was inducted into the Tulsa Hall of Fame in 2009

Three beliefs motivate Linda Sellen Frazier’s volunteer work: Every child should have access to education in the arts; the arts are vital to the development of our city; and no city can be great without a symphony orchestra.

Frazier is a native Tulsan. After graduating from Will Rogers High School in 1958, she received a B.A. degree Magna Cum Laude in French and Music from DePauw University in 1962 and a M.A. degree in the Humanities from the University of Tulsa in 1979.  She worked at the University of Tulsa as Managing Editor of Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature for seventeen years, from 1986 to 2003.

She is a past-president of the Junior League of Tulsa, the Arts and Humanities Council of Tulsa, Chamber Music Tulsa, the Alliance Française de Tulsa, and the Ruskin Art Club. She was Founding Chair of the Harwelden Institute, an arts education program of the Arts and Humanities Council of Tulsa.  She served on the Oklahoma Arts Council for nine years, four of those as chair. She continues to fill a mayoral appointment on the Tulsa Arts Commission and was chair of that commission during the selection of art for the BOK Center.

Frazier currently serves as president of the Board of Directors of the Tulsa Symphony and as a member of the boards of the Mid-America Arts Alliance, the Arts and Humanities Council of Tulsa, the Tulsa Ballet, the Oklahoma Arts Institute, Chamber Music Tulsa, and the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics Foundation

Her honors include Phi Beta Kappa from DePauw University, the Governor’s Arts Award in 1991, the Marilyn Douglas Award in 1995, the Pinnacle Awards in 1990 and 2000 and the Charles E. Norman Harwelden Distinguished Service Award.

She is married to Dr. Marc Alan Frazier, a retired dentist. She is the proud mother of two daughters, Marcy Huigens and Lynn Goldberg, and two sons-in-law, Michael Huigens and Dr. Marc Goldberg, and the grandmother of Jack and Kate Huigens, and Emma and Elise Goldberg.  She and Marc sing in the Chancel Choir of Boston Avenue Methodist Church and love to travel, especially to France.

Linda Frazier is a guiding force for art appreciation, education, and enjoyment in her hometown and state.

George and Phyllis Dotson were inducted into the Tulsa Hall of Fame in 2009

George and Phyllis Dotson are two of Tulsa’s most admired and effective leaders.

A native Oklahoman, George S. Dotson graduated from M.I.T. in 1962, served in the Army as a Captain in Germany and Vietnam, and completed his education by receiving an M.B.A. from Harvard.

In 1970, Dotson began what would become a 37 year career with Helmerich & Payne in Tulsa.  He would become president of Helmerich & Payne International Drilling Co., and vice president and a director of Helmerich & Payne, Inc. He is on the Executive Committee of the International Association of Drilling Contractors and received its 1998 Contractor of the Year Award.

George also dedicates time and talent to public service.  He serves as a trustee for St. Simeon’s Episcopal Home and the home’s Foundation, is a member of Tulsa YPO and the Advisory Board of the Tulsa Mental Health Association.

George and Phyllis Dotson were married in 1963.  They have a daughter and two sons, one of whom is deceased, and four grandchildren.

Phyllis N. Dotson was born in Salem, MA and attended schools there, graduating from Simmons College in Boston with a B.S., R.N. degree in Nursing.

Phyllis’s community service reaches out to health, education, the arts, and more. She serves as a trustee of the Saint Simeon’s Episcopal Home Foundation and the Philbrook Museum of Art and is on the advisory boards of the Tulsa Ronald McDonald House, Mental Health Association, Domestic Violence Intervention Services, Crosstown Learning Center, and the Assistance League of Tulsa. She also serves on the board of the Juliette Low society and the Resonance Open Door Society, is a member of Junior League of Tulsa, and a lifetime member of St. John’s Medical Center Auxiliary and Saint Simeon’s Volunteer Auxiliary.

Her work has been honored by the Mental Health Association, Women in Communications, Simmons College, and the Tulsa Chapter of the National Society of Fund Raising Executives.

The Dotsons prove how a dynamic couple can benefit their community by working individually or together.  They co-chaired the recent St. Simeon’s Capital Campaign for more than $23,000,000 and both have served the Vestry St. John’s Episcopal Church.  George and Phyllis Dotson show how marriage can produce teamwork that extends far beyond even a loving family.

George Fulton Collins III was inducted into the Tulsa Hall of Fame in 2009

George Fulton Collins III sought challenges for himself and created opportunities for others during his 65 years that was a model for a life well lived.  He died July 30, 2008.

A Tulsa native, Collins earned three degrees from Stanford University, where he studied business and economics in the 1960’s. He completed a bachelor’s degree in economics, an MBA and a master’s degree in operations research at Stanford and pursued learning throughout his life.

He was vice president of Syntex Corp., a pharmaceutical company based in California,  from 1971 to 1980. He returned to Tulsa to assume leadership of the family glass business serving as chairman and chief executive officer of Liberty Glass from 1980 to 1994. He founded Collins Investments and served as chairman and CEO from 1994 to 2008.
Collins joined the University of Tulsa board of trustees in 1993 serving as chairman from 1997 until May of 2008.  During that time, TU’s endowment doubled and its physical plant grew by 1.2 million square feet at a cost of $186 million. 

He oversaw the hiring of two TU presidents and was responsible for two new buildings on campus: Collins Hall, housing admissions, alumni, financial aid, and some other administrative offices; and the Fulton and Susie Collins Fitness Center. 

Collins was instrumental in upgrading the college’s master of business administration program, including a $30 million campaign for additional faculty and student scholarships. In 2008, TU renamed its College of Business Administration for Collins and presented him with its first diploma, an honorary doctorate.
In addition to his devotion to TU and his family, Collins taught himself three languages, ran, hiked, and played tennis, and had a life long passion for travel which began in his teen years with globe circling trips.

Collins married Suzanne “Susie” McCabe in 1977. He had four children, George Fulton IV, Carolyn, Suzanne, and Catherine and three grandchildren.
George Fulton Collins brought happiness to his family and others because it was second nature for him and, with his youthful outlook and high energy, his memory endures as one of Tulsa’s most admired and effective community leaders.