OSU, Spears School of Business award posthumous degree to Vietnam War veteran

Friday, March 12, 2021

Oklahoma State University and the Spears School of Business awarded veteran John Delbert “J.D.” Starrett III a posthumous degree Friday, more than 50 years after the business student was killed in Vietnam while serving in the U.S. Army.

OSU President Burns Hargis made the presentation in a ceremony that included a small number of family and friends at the McKnight Center on the Stillwater campus.

Starrett, from Bartlesville, Oklahoma, was an OSU student in the late 1960s who was one semester away from graduation when he was drafted to serve in the Vietnam War. Education was very important to Starrett and with only a few course credits shy of earning his diploma, he left for Vietnam on June 9, 1970, with hopes of returning and completing his accounting degree.

U.S. Army Sergeant Starrett was assigned to Company D, 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry of the 1st Air Cavalry Division. He was awarded the Bronze Star for Meritorious Service for his heroism on Sept. 18, 1970, when he exposed himself to hostile fire when his unit engaged enemy forces. Starrett’s display of personal bravery and devotion to duty that day was an inspiration to the other members of his unit. Less than a month later, on Oct. 4, 1970, the 23-year-old Starrett was killed in the line of duty.

On Oct. 25, 2019, the OSU Board of Regents voted unanimously to award a posthumous bachelor’s degree to Starrett and to present the diploma to his family in May 2020, but OSU’s commencement ceremony was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Accepting the degree from Hargis was Starrett’s widow, Sue LeMaster Starrett Reynolds, who is now remarried and lives in Bartlesville. The Spears School of Business also presented duplicates of the diploma to Starrett's siblings who attended the ceremony: sisters Claudean Stotts and Janice Banks and brother David Starrett.

“Oklahoma State University is honored to recognize J.D. Starrett for his academic success and his military service,” Hargis said. “We offer our deepest gratitude to his wife, sisters and brother for his ultimate sacrifice for our nation.”

Sue LeMaster Starrett Reynolds fondly remembers her late husband.

“He was such fun, he loved his family, and he loved his friends,” she said. “He was a good husband. We could have filled the whole room (today with family and friends).”

David Starrett and his wife, Carol, traveled from their home in South Carolina to Stillwater for the ceremony.

“I was the younger brother, he was all things to me,” he said. “I remember being in the first grade, walking to the bus stop through knee-deep water for a 7-year-old and I fell down. All of sudden, I was picked up and it was J.D., following me to the bus stop. He was always there for me when I didn’t know he was.”

A donation by Starrett’s family in his name has been made to the Veterans Endowed Scholarship in the Spears School of Business. The fund is for scholarships for full- or part-time veteran students, and even deployed veterans.

The degree was originally scheduled to be presented in a ceremony at the recently completed Carter C. Hanner Alumni Veterans Garden but was moved to the McKnight Center because of weather conditions.

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