Dr. Henry Migliore Continues Prolific Career
Editor’s Note: Much of the following article appeared in GTR Newspapers in 2013. Amazingly, Henry Migliore continues to serve greater Tulsa through his consulting work with Managing for Success and various writings.
By D. FORREST CAMERON
Editor and Publisher
Dr. R. Henry Migliore has been a leading fixture in Tulsa education and business circles since 1970, when he left a successful career with Continental Can Company to return to his home region to accept a teaching position at Oral Roberts University.
The career change was a correct decision, as he became professor of management and dean of the ORU School of Business from 1975 until 1987. He was responsible for the accreditation of the School of Business in 1975.
Migliore’s career has been prolific in his teaching, managing, consulting and other areas. He has written 17 books in seven languages. His books and articles have been translated into Chinese, Russian, Spanish, Korean, German and Japanese. He has trained international managers. Titles have included “MBO: Blue Collar to Top Executive, An Approach to Long-Range Planning,” “A Strategic Plan for Your Life,” “Strategic Long-Range Planning,” “Strategic Planning for Church and Ministry Growth,” “Common Sense Management: A Biblical Perspective,” “Personal Action Planning: How to Know What You Want And Get It,” and “Tales of Uncle Henry.”
His articles on management and business subjects have also appeared in many business and trade publications as well as in area newspaper outlets throughout the Tulsa region.
Today, Migliore is president of Managing for Success, his consulting company, where he is a leading strategist for long-term planning for business, sports and religious leaders. He offers consulting services as well as resources including books, videos, articles, seminars and training sessions. In addition, he is professor emeritus at the former University Center at Tulsa/Northeastern State University and has served as an adjunct professor for Oklahoma State University, Langston University, St. Gregory’s University and Southern Nazarene University. He teaches at the graduate and undergraduate levels.
He was a visiting professor at several international universities, including the University of Calgary; ITESM Campus Guadalajara; Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico; Universidad Del Valle de Mexico, Mexico City; Peniel University, London, England; Singapore Productivity Center; WuWi China; and the University of Leningrad.
His consulting expertise includes strategic planning, problem solving, and team building for action and solutions. His formula for developing supportive functional plans and their coordination with the overall plan is unique. In his website, www.henrymigliore.com, he offers a variety of resources and materials including books, articles, presentations, online courses, videos and photos.
He has received numerous testimonials from former students and business contacts, including Lelia McCoy, past-president of Valley National Bank, who was quoted in a 2010 article in GTR Newspapers, “McCoy credits Dr. Henry Migliore, who was the dean of the School of Business while she was a student at ORU. She says, ‘I received an assistantship under Dr. Migliore, who became my mentor.’”
Business testimonials have come from individuals such as J. Peter Grace of W.R. Grace & Co; Dr. Roger Fritz, Roger Fritz & Associates; Jerry Robinson, former director of field sales for Canon; and David L. Willis, project manager, Williams Communications Corp. to name a few.
Though Migliore has a worldwide reputation for his business acumen, excellent teaching and consulting expertise, his roots are quite local. He was born in 1940 in Harrison, Arkansas. The family moved to Tulsa soon after, and he attended Lee Elementary School in Tulsa for kindergarten. His family moved to Collinsville in 1950.
Migliore says, “My father was a journey electrician. He always had a dream of owning a store, and he bought the Western Auto Store in Collinsville, in the center of town.” Migliore says that he worked in the store from age 10. “I learned more from my father than I did getting my Ph.D. At age 16, I started working at the cash register and was put in charge of the fishing section.”
Migliore says that he graduated from Collinsville High School in 1958 in a class of 58 students. He was the tallest at 6 feet 3 inches. “We didn’t have a television in our house until I was 16, and we didn’t have air conditioning until I was 21. It was hot in the house at night.”
He says he played sports all day every day. “I dreamed of excelling in athletics. Dreams guide behavior. I caught fireflies and looked at the stars. We lived a mile from the coal pits. I swam in them. On the way out I would ride my bike, drop off at the football field, run 100-yard dashes and shoot baskets. I would be sweating. With my companions, we would cool off and pal around.”
Migliore says that religion was important in the culture of Collinsville. Church was number one. Athletics was also very important. “Subconsciously we were getting encouragement from sports.” He played football, basketball and baseball and ran track. He was all conference in all three sports and won the district 440-yard dash.
Migliore went to Eastern Oklahoma A&M in fall of 1958 on a football and basketball scholarship. He was offered a football scholarship upon graduation from Eastern but went to Oklahoma State University instead to concentrate on his studies. Later, he was elected into Eastern Oklahoma A&M Athletic Hall of Fame.
At OSU, he majored in production management in the business school. His degree is a Bachelor in Business Administration. (His graduate degrees include an M.S. in commerce from Saint Louis University and a Ph.D. in Business from the University of Arkansas.)
His 1962 graduation was timely as nationwide production was increasing and engineers were in demand. “I was intrigued by the opportunities in manufacturing plants. I was hired by Continental Can, who at that time had just introduced the pop-top on soda and beer cans. I saw they were expanding after reading a newspaper article. I contacted them and they were interested in me. They flew me up to Chicago. In January 1963 I took the job at $425 a month to start. I enjoyed the Chicago White Sox, Cubs and Bears. I moved into a living area with lots of up-and-comers.”
The move to Chicago was very fortuitous, as he met his wife of over 50 years, Mari Bentley, there. He says that he proposed on Valentine’s Day. He moved quickly through the company and learned management techniques while dealing with increasing product demand and labor issues. He moved several times to various positions and locations for the company. There was an important force that eventually pulled the Migliores away from Continental Can and Chicago: his mother was lonesome for her son.
He says, “By 1970, when I was 30, Continental Can needed a better liaison between marketing and manufacturing. The company wanted to move us to New York. It would have been a great salary and box seats to the Yankee games.
“About this time, my mother said Oral Roberts University was growing and wanted me to apply for a position there. To please my mother, I sat down at a Royal typewriter and asked if they would like for me to teach. Dr. Harold Paul called. I wanted a rejection letter, though I was drawn to him. I enjoyed our phone calls.”
He continues, “The holy spirit called. I had spent my whole life moving ahead. Every baseball player wants to go to the bigs. I turned down New York to become an instructor at ORU.”
The rest is history.
