Higher Education Hall of Fame Announces Special Recognition Induction of Two Pioneers During Centennial Year October 2, 2007

Contact: Amanda Hudson
(405) 522-3569

Oklahoma City, OK
August 9, 2007
For Immediate Release

The Oklahoma Higher Education Hall of Fame has announced that Special Recognition induction will be granted to two pioneers of Oklahoma Higher Education during the Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and Dinner on October 2, 2007.

Two women, each singular in their accomplishments, "one for being the first woman graduate of Oklahoma Higher Education, and one for managing and directing the institution that grew into the University of Tulsa," will be honored and remembered by the Higher Education Heritage Society for their contributions and examples.

Jessie Thatcher Bost, the first female graduate of Oklahoma Higher Education and Alice Mary Robertson, the head of a Presbyterian boarding school for girls in Muskogee that became Henry Kendall College in 1894 and relocated and became the University of Tulsa in 1920 will receive Special Recognition during this year's ceremony at the Oklahoma History Center.

Ms. Bost who died in 1963 was born in Stillwater in 1875, enrolled in Oklahoma A&M College, took the same agricultural and chemistry classes as the male students, and though the enrollment then was about equally divided between men and women in that first enrolling class of about forty, she was the first female graduate and became a school teacher in Stillwater. In 1902 she married Henry Bost, and in 1908 moved to Alva and taught in the Cleveland public schools for twenty years. She was a pioneer for women's suffrage, pushing the cause until the passage of the 19th Amendment, and was referred to by former A&M President Henry Bennett as "Oklahoma's first woman of education."

Oklahoma has been blessed with activist women who brought culture, education and compassion to the state, but none of them played a more decisive role than Alice Mary Robertson. Born in the Creek Nation in 1854, Ms. Robertson attended college in the East, worked for the Office of Indian Affairs in Washington and labored as a secretary at the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania. She became the head of a Presbyterian boarding school for girls at Muskogee in 1885, and by skillful management and hard work that institution became the Henry Kendall College in 1894. The college moved to Tulsa in 1907 and then in 1920 became the University of Tulsa. Ms. Robertson taught at the Henry Kendall College until 1899, after which she moved to Muskogee, became a federal supervisor of Creek education and later postmistress. She was elected to Congress from Oklahoma's Second District in 1920, but later failed for reelection. She passed away in 1931. As she honored this state with her activities, she is being honored by a Special Recognition induction into this year's Higher Education Hall of Fame.

The regular inductees in this year's Hall of Fame Class are: Alvin Alcorn, former Vice President of Finance for the University of Central Oklahoma; James P. Brill, Professor Emeritus of Petroleum Engineering at the University of Tulsa; Billy Crynes, Dean and Professor Emeritus of Engineering at the University of Oklahoma, and formerly serving Oklahoma State University; B. Curtis Hamm, Professor Emeritus of Business, Oklahoma State University; Jacob F. Larson, Professor Emeritus of Music, University of Oklahoma; Charles J. Mankin, Director, Oklahoma Geological Survey and Professor at the University of Oklahoma; Jean Bell Manning, Vice President of Academic Affairs, Langston University; Lloyd K. Musselman, Professor of History, Oklahoma City University; Jeanine Rhea, Professor of Business, Oklahoma State University; and Gary L. Smith, Executive Vice Chancellor (retired) Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education.