Foundation chair says Pickens' gift prompted board to act
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
The chairman of the Puterbaugh Foundation’s board of trustees says Boone Pickens’
latest gift was one of the factors behind his foundation’s move to fund a new professorship
in the Spears School of Business at Oklahoma State University.
“The board saw Boone Pickens’ gift to OSU as reason for excitement and confidence
in the university’s future and proposed to fund the professorship,” said Oklahoma
Supreme Court Justice Steven Taylor, an OSU alumnus, and the only OSU graduate on
the foundation board.
“I think there’s a message there,” added Taylor, “that Boone Pickens’ gifts can serve
as a catalyst.”
Taylor announced the establishment of an endowment for the Puterbaugh Professorship
in Legal Studies and Ethics in Business for the Spears School of Business on Wednesday,
Feb. 15, while serving as the first lecturer in the Puterbaugh lectureship series
that was established by the same foundation last year.
“This professorship is exactly what J.G. Puterbaugh would have wanted to see his
money used for since he was a strong advocate of education and businesses that give
back to their community,” said Taylor, who emphasized government service and ethics
in business and government to the students and others who heard his lecture, Wednesday,
Feb. 15, at the ConocoPhillips Alumni Center.
Justice Taylor was appointed to the Supreme Court of Oklahoma in 2004. In his 21
years as a trial judge, he has presided over more than 500 jury trials, including
the Terry Nichols Oklahoma City bombing case.
After earning his B.A. in political science from OSU in 1971, Taylor attended the
University of Oklahoma College of Law and received his juris doctor degree in 1974.
Taylor says he is honored to serve as chair of the Puterbaugh Foundation and recommended
that students readily accept invitations to serve on the boards of foundations and
trusts.
Taylor explained that Puterbaugh, the namesake for the foundation, was a successful
McAlester businessman, dedicated to educational and civic activity. Puterbaugh established
one of the first business-funded local charities in southeast Oklahoma. The Puterbaugh
Foundation also funds a professorship at the OSU Edmon Low Library.