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Justice Steven Taylor to speak at Oklahoma State University commencement

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Oklahoma Supreme Court Justice Steven Taylor, an Oklahoma State University alumnus, will be the featured speaker at both of the university’s undergraduate commencement ceremonies on Saturday, Dec. 10, at 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. in Gallagher-Iba Arena. After serving more than 20 years as a trial judge, and presiding over more than 500 cases, including the Oklahoma City bombing case, Taylor was appointed as a justice of the state’s highest court in 2004. He served as chief justice from 2011-2013, and recently announced plans to retire at the end of this year.

Justice Steven Taylor

“We are fortunate and privileged to have such a distinguished public servant and alumnus speak to our new graduates as he concludes his remarkable career,” said OSU President Burns Hargis. “Justice Taylor’s 33 years as a judge is the culmination of a life of leadership and service that started years earlier in numerous roles, including chief prosecutor and judge in the Marine Corps, where he attained the rank of major. He was also a city councilman who became one of the youngest mayors elected to office in McAlester, and later, his judicial peers elected him president of their conference. He’s a role model and inspiration for all of us.”

Taylor was recognized by OSU in 2002 as a Leadership Legacy, and as a Distinguished Alumnus in 2003. He was inducted into the OSU Hall of Fame in 2007 and the University of Oklahoma presented him with the Regents Alumni Award in 2009. He is the only person to have received the highest alumni recognition from both universities. In its 2007 centennial edition, Oklahoma magazine named Taylor one of the “100 Who Shaped Us” – a list of living and past Oklahomans who influenced the first 100 years of our state. In 2009, he was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame, the highest honor an Oklahoman can receive from the state.

Taylor graduated from OSU in 1971 with a bachelor’s degree in political science and in 1974 with a juris doctorate from the University of Oklahoma College of Law. Following his active duty service in the Marines, Taylor practiced law in McAlester where he was elected mayor, the youngest in the city’s history at the time. In March 1984, he was appointed associate district judge for Pittsburg County, and in 1991 he became the first associate district judge ever elected president of the Oklahoma Judicial Conference.

He was later elected to serve as district judge of the 18th Judicial District and then presiding judge of the ten-county East-Central Judicial Administrative District. Taylor was the recipient of the Oklahoma Bar Association Award of Judicial Excellence in 2003 as the outstanding Oklahoma judge of the year.

The OSU Pipe Band will lead the Saturday commencement processionals into Gallagher-Iba Arena where graduating students will be seated by college. The undergraduate ceremonies will start at 10:30 a.m. for students from the College of Arts and Sciences, College of Education, and the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, and at 1:30 p.m. for students from the Spears School of Business, College of Human Sciences, and the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology.

The graduate commencement ceremony will be at 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 9 at the same location.

Live, streaming video of each event will be provided online at OStateTV (www.ostate.tv).  

For more information on commencement day parking and activities, please go to https://commencement.okstate.edu/.

PHOTO: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ostatenews/albums/72157673225418704

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