CEAT Hall of Fame to welcome computer, construction entrepreneurs

Thursday, October 27, 2005

The Oklahoma State University College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology will induct a pair of entrepreneurial icons into its Hall of Fame on Friday, Oct. 28.

Oklahoma construction magnate James Cummins and Gordon E. Eubanks Jr., a Silicon Valley pioneer and software industry guru, will be honored during a ceremony at 6 p.m. in the Wes Watkins Center. They bring the number of distinguished professionals to 76 inductees recognized by CEAT since its Hall of Fame was established in 1954.

H. E. Cummins and Sons Construction Co. — originally a commercial, industrial and public building firm in Enid, Oklahoma — became a reputable heavy contractor during the postwar era with a series of monumental projects. Work on Tulsa’s Keystone expressway and the Robert S. Kerr Lock and Dam on the Arkansas River preceded construction of the largest bridges in Oklahoma at the time, including spans across the Arkansas and Red rivers and the overhead I-40 expressway in Oklahoma City. Arrowhead Dam southeast of Wichita Falls, Texas — stretching 3.2 miles from one abutment to the other and featuring a spillway the width of four football fields — was the largest, earth-filled dam in the Southwest when the company built it in 1965-66.

With Jim, the oldest of the brothers, as its president, H.E. Cummins and Sons developed subsidiary concrete and asphalt plant operations throughout the state and a steel fabrication facility on the Arkansas River near Muskogee, Oklahoma, to support its projects. The Muskogee terminal became the site for a family holding involved in the storage and marketing of residual oil and, ultimately, Jim Cummins’ ongoing interests in the manufacture and marketing of residual oil-based products.

Cummins has been owner, president, founding shareholder or held a controlling interest in 15 different companies. At 83, he currently heads Northern Equipment Co., Keystone Equipment Co., Cummins Investment Corporation and CIC Frontier Corporation.

Cummins completed a bachelor’s degree in arts and sciences at OSU in 1943 before joining the U.S. Marine Corps. He returned to Stillwater and completed his bachelor’s degree in architectural engineering in 1947.

Eubanks authored C-Basic, one of the first successful languages for personal computers, after completing his master’s degree in computer science at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. His graduate adviser was Gary Kildall, a founding father of desktop computing and author of the first mainstream desktop operating system. Eubanks founded his first company, Compiler Systems, in 1976 to market C-Basic while still an officer in the U.S. Navy. His mother ran the company out of her home in Sierra Madre, California.

Later, as president and CEO of Symantec Corporation, Eubanks oversaw the development of the popular productivity packages Timeline and Q & A Write. He also initiated an aggressive policy of mergers and acquisitions as a strategic engine for growth, making Symantec the first software company to do so.

The company acquired Norton in 1990 to gain a foothold in security and utility software and is now recognized as a leader in the business. During Eubanks’ tenure from 1984-99, the company swelled from fewer than 20 employees to more than 5,000 with net revenues in excess of $500 million. Today, it employs 14,000 people worldwide in 40 countries.
Eubanks joined Oblix Inc. as president and CEO in 1999. The electronic identity management and secure web access software provider was named among the Hot 100 Companies of 2000 by Upside and the 21st Century Infrastructure Companies for 2000 by PC Week. Established as a leading developer of identity-based security solutions for e-business networks, Oblix was acquired by Oracle this year.

A 1964 graduate of Tulsa Edison High School, Eubanks completed a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering at OSU in 1968. He completed one year of graduate school at OSU and spent six months working for IBM’s branch office in Tulsa before his draft induction into the Navy.

The CEAT Hall of Fame recognizes both distinguished OSU graduates and individuals who have enhanced the reputation of the college through association. Inductees — which have included legends in engineering, architecture and technology education, industry and policy formation — share a common set of qualities including modesty and integrity, dignity and quiet leadership, aspiration and perseverance and sound judgment and vision, according to Dr. Karl Reid, dean of the college.