Five generations of Cowboy tradition

Thursday, December 17, 2020

The Cowboy family creates a special bond between all graduates of OSU. But one family in particular has deep familial ties to OSU that began more than 100 years ago.

When Nathan May graduates from OSU in May 2021, he will be the fifth consecutive generation of OSU graduates from his family. The family’s first graduate was May’s great-great grandmother Esther Miller, who graduated from Oklahoma A&M in 1914.

The Family Story

In 1911, three sisters moved from Helena, Oklahoma, to Stillwater with their widowed mother to make a better life for themselves. The family rented a two-story house on Duck Street, and they cooked meals and provided laundry service to the male students living upstairs.

Ella, Hilma and Esther Miller used their earnings to attend Oklahoma A&M. All three sisters graduated together in 1914. Ella earned her degree in home economics while Hilma and Esther graduated with degrees in education.

Esther Miller later married Herb Surface and had a daughter, Phyllis Jo Surface. Surface married Doyce Smith, and the couple attended OSU. Phyllis Jo graduated in 1949 with a degree in education, and Doyce was a member of the first graduating class for veterinary medicine in 1951.

After graduation, the Smiths moved to Cherokee, Oklahoma, and had two children — Jo Shelley Taylor and Rod Smith. Taylor, Nathan’s grandmother, graduated from OSU in 1971 with a degree in speech-language pathology, and Smith earned his OSU degree in wildlife biology in 1974 to complete the third generation of Cowboys.

Jo Shelley married Dr. Tom Friedemann, who is also an OSU graduate. Together, they had James and Kari. James graduated from OSU in 1991 with a degree in speech communication. Kari, Nathan’s mother, earned her OSU degree in exercise science in 1993. Kari married Jason May, and they had three sons together — Nathan, Noah and Nicholas.

The unique beginning
This five-generation Cowboy family started with the ambition of four women from Helena. This drive to create an opportunity for themselves and all of their future families is not lost on the generations of Cowboys who followed in their footsteps.

“It is pretty amazing to me that my great-grandmother was willing to move her family and make it worth the while for the three girls to attend school in the 1900s,” Jo Shelley Taylor said. “She had to leave her hometown.”

Nathan May shared his grandmother’s sentiment when he learned about the origins of his family’s OSU story. His ancestors’ journey has had a major impact on his life.

“I thought it was so unique and rare,” May said.

The drive to be a strong and successful woman is something that Jim Friedemann has seen passed down through his family, including first-hand through his mother — Jo Shelley Taylor.

“My mom is very, very strong and driven,” Friedemann said. “She has always worked hard. It makes sense to me that quality would’ve been carried down.

Bridging Generations

OSU’s legacy is full of incredible traditions and history. Alumni of any university feel a strong connection to their alma mater, but OSU’s alumni have a tendency to have that connection hold strong throughout many years.

“We always had a strong loyalty to Oklahoma State University,” Friedemann said. “It is like nothing else.”

That allegiance has helped build a bond among the family members and created a connection between those who never had the opportunity to meet each other. Rod Smith felt the impact of that family history when he was a student in Stillwater.

“It gave me a sense of home,” Smith said. “I knew my family was in the same Student Union and walked the same halls. Walking through the same doors at the library and seeing the fountain dyed orange at Homecoming. We know that we all got to experience those same things.”

Nathan will graduate more than 100 years after his great-great grandmother, Esther Miller, but the fact they attended the same university helps him to feel a part of something special. Nathan’s mother, Kari, also feels closer to her son because they both attended OSU.

“It is a strong connection that we share,” Kari said. “I also share it with my parents and my grandma. It is a bond that not many people get to experience.”

Continuing the Tradition

The fifth generation of OSU graduates does not have to end when Nathan receives his degree in May 2021. Jo Shelley Taylor hopes to see their legacy of Cowboy graduates continue to grow as Nathan’s younger brothers get closer to the college age. This is a sentiment shared by Kari May as she prepares to see Nathan graduate.

“You want your kids to make their own decisions,” Kari said. “I am going through that now as my next son is a senior in high school. I want him to go where he wants to go, but secretly I am pulling for OSU to be that choice.”

Nathan hopes he and his brothers are not the last consecutive generation to earn degrees from OSU. He would like to see that love for OSU continue to grow in the future as he gets older and starts a family of his own. He is confident the traditions that OSU has will help keep his family’s streak of graduates alive.

“Coming from someone who has that family experience, it gives me confidence that OSU will be the same when my kids go here,” Nathan said.