Press Club to Honor Kathy Taylor, David Boren
HEADLINERS: Kathy Taylor and David Boren were honored this year by the Tulsa Press Club as Headliners for 2004. From left are Stuart Solomon, president and CEO of PSO; Elizabeth Frame, daughter of Kathy Taylor who introduced her mother; and Taylor and Boren.
FORREST CAMERON for GTR Newspapers
University of Oklahoma President David Boren and Oklahoma Secretary of Commerce and Tourism Kathy Taylor were honored recently as the Tulsa Press Club’s Headliner recipients for 2004.
Boren and Taylor were recognized at the Press Club’s Headliner function on October 26. A reception and dinner were held.
The Headliner Award, first bestowed in 1956, recognizes Oklahomans who have had significant impact on the city and state.
Taylor was appointed secretary of commerce and tourism by Governor Brad Henry in February, 2003. She also serves as Henry’s small business advocate for the state.
Before her appointment, Taylor was an attorney with Crowe & Dunlevy and president of the Lobeck-Taylor Foundation. She serves on the Board of Visitors for OU College of Arts and Sciences, and on the University of Tulsa Board of Trustees. She has served on the board of directors of Sonic Industries, Dollar Car Rental, National Car Rental, and the Grand River Dam Authority, and as a trustee for the OU Foundation.
She is a member of the Tulsa County Bar Association, the Oklahoma Bar Association, the American Bar Association, and the International Bar Association.
Taylor’s community involvement has also included the Gilcrease Museum, Resonance Support Center for Women, Domestic Violence Intervention Services, Tulsa Zoo Friends, and the Philbrook Museum of Art. She was also active in serving the Holland Hall School, and Community Service Council of Greater Tulsa, among others.
As chair of two major Tulsa fund-raising events, the Opera Ball and Philbrook Wine Experience, Taylor promotes both the state and the arts.
For both the Opera and Philbrook, she was able to make a significant impact. Revenues from the Wine Experience, the museum’s largest fund-raiser, grew to more than $1 million for the first time in its history, which placed the event in the top wine events in the country.
Taylor was the first commerce secretary to be tasked with three state agencies—Commerce, Tourism and Recreation, and Workforce Development/Oklahoma Employment Security Commission. She received the 2003 Pinnacle Award for Community Service from the Mayor’s Commission on the Status of Women and the 2003 Mona Lambird Spotlight Award from the Oklahoma Bar Association.
Boren became the 13th president of the University of Oklahoma in November, 1994. Under his leadership, OU has added 20 major new programs.
The number of new facilities started or completed on the campus during his tenure has matched the expansion in programs. Among the many new facilities is the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, the largest natural history museum of its kind based at a university.
A Rhodes Scholar, Boren teaches a freshman-level course in political science each semester.
A member of the Oklahoma Hall of Fame, Boren is the first person in Oklahoma history to have served as governor, U.S. senator, and president of OU.
Boren’s political career spanned nearly three decades in elective office. He was the youngest governor in the nation when he served from 1974 to 1978. In the U.S. Senate, he was the longest-serving chairman of the Senate’s Select Committee on Intelligence.
The Headliner dinner benefits the Tulsa Press Club and Benevolent Association, an association of media and related professionals established in 1932.
Proceeds from the dinner support several of the club’s endeavors including scholarship programs, the Page One monthly speakers’ luncheons, and “meet the candidate” bipartisan receptions held prior to legislative and municipal events, as well as some operating expenses.
The most recent Headliners were Nancy Feldman and Ron King. Previous honorees include Nancy Meinig, Robert E. Lorton, Mollie Williford, Jack Zarrow, Keith Bailey, Sister Sylvia Schmidt, Roxana Lorton, and Stan Lybarger.
Robert E. Lorton III, president of the Tulsa World, in honorary chairman of this year’s event. Patron chairs are Ken Lackey, chief executive officer of Nordam, and Mollie Williford of Williford Companies and past Headliner recipient. Event co-chairs for the dinner this year are Jesse Boudiette with Schnake Turnbo Frank, Inc., and Stacey Roggendorff with the Tulsa World.
More information about tables and individual ticket sales is available at 582-9151.
Updated 11-24-2004
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