OSU Diversity Hall of Fame to honor six

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

The Oklahoma State University Diversity Hall of Fame will induct five new honorees and recognize a rising star recipient on Thursday, Oct. 27, at 6:30 p.m. in the ConocoPhillips Alumni Center. The event is sold out, however it will be broadcast live online at ostate.tv.

The hall of fame inductees will include Dr. William E. Hogan II, Sam Howard, L. Patrice Latimer, and posthumous inductions for Dr. Melvin B. Tolson, Jr., and Phail Wynn, Sr. Tambra Raye Stevenson will receive the Rising Star award.

“Oklahoma State University is pleased to honor and celebrate these outstanding alumni for their many milestones, career success, and contributions to society,” said OSU President Burns Hargis.

Since 1993, Dr. William E. Hogan II has served as founder, chairman and CEO of The Hogan Group (THG), a management consultant firm. He graduated with a degree in electrical engineering from OSU in 1965 and enjoyed a successful academic career at the University of Kansas where he became a full tenured professor before working for Honeywell and Medtronic Company. Hogan has served on White House task forces on education.

Sam Howard currently serves as chairman of Phoenix Holdings, Inc., an investment holding company pursuing opportunities in health care and real estate. Howard began his career in the health field and served as a vice president in various capacities for Meharry Medical College, Hospital Affiliates International, Inc, and Hospital Corporation of America. He graduated with degrees from OSU and Stanford and served as a White House Fellow.

In 1975, L. Patrice Latimer became the first African American student at OSU to be elected president of the Student Government Association. Following graduation, she worked for Cargill, Inc. as a commodity merchant, before earning her law degree at the University of Oklahoma. Her legal career ranged from criminal prosecution in Oklahoma to civil, employment and labor litigation in Washington D.C.

On May 29, 1950, Dr. Melvin B. Tolson, Jr. became one of two African American students who were the first to earn a degree from Oklahoma A & M College, now Oklahoma State University. He later became the first full-time African American faculty member at the University of Oklahoma, where he taught French for 31 years. The OU Henderson-Tolson Center is named in his honor. Tolson died in 2011.

Phail Wynn, Sr. attended Langston University before enlisting in the U.S. Army, where he became a pilot and rose to the rank of cadet captain in flight training. He was one of the first two African Americans to graduate from OSU in 1950. Soon after, he started a career in civil service that took him to Texas, Lawton, Fort Sill, and Vietnam. He was the first African American to be elected to the Board of Education in Lawton. Wynn died in 1973.

Rising Star recipient Tambra Raye Stevenson graduated from OSU in 2002 with a degree in nutritional sciences and a minor in Spanish. She taught community health abroad before initiating several firsts in Washington, D.C. including the first D.C. Mayor’s Office on Women’s Policy and Initiatives, the first Women and Girls Wellness Conference, and the first D.C. Victims Assistance Academy. She recently launched an organization in Nigeria to transform the food system.

The event will begin with a reception from 5:30-6:30 p.m. The dinner and awards ceremony is scheduled for 6:30-8:30 p.m.

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