In Memory - 2024

Feb 20, 2024

Dolores “Dot” Neustadt

1928-2023

Woman in glasses — Dolores “Dot” Neustadt

Dolores “Dot” Neustadt passed away in May yet her impact on Oklahoma City University will live on through the establishment of the Neustadt Lecture Series at OCU with her husband, Walter, since 1983. The goal of these lectures is to teach about the contributions of the Judaic religious tradition to Western Civilization with presenters speaking on themes of Jewish ethic, Hebrew scriptures, Judaic thought and Jewish art. Their family also established the Dolores K. and Walter Neustadt Jr. Professorship of Comparative Literature and the Neustadt International Prize for Literature at the University of Oklahoma as well as the Dolores and Walter Neustadt Lecture series at Temple Emanu-El, a synagogue in Dallas, among others.

Neustadt was born in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1928, attended Mt. Vernon Junior College in Washington, D.C., and graduated from Tulane University in New Orleans in 1950, the same year she married Walter Neustadt, Jr. They lived in Ardmore, Oklahoma, until 1998, when they moved to Dallas, where they resided until Walter’s passing in 2010. Their family includes daughters Nancy Barcelo, Susan Neustadt Schwartz and Kathy Neustadt, who have continued their parents’ legacy in the excellence and support of higher education.

Marjorie Downing

1933-2023

Marjorie Downing passed away in October after 90 years of life through which she broke down several barriers becoming the first full time female faculty member at the Oklahoma City University Law School. During her tenure at OCU, she would go on to serve as interim and acting dean for the law school. She eventually retired from OCU in 1998 but continued her work in women’s equality.

Downing graduated from Ponca City High School in 1953, continuing her educational career at the University of Oklahoma where she studied law and was the only woman in her graduating class. After graduating, she started a family and did clerical work for her husband’s law firm, which would lead her to serving as legislative assistant for Fred Harris where she worked towards the advancement of equal rights of women and marginalized groups, a goal that continued throughout her life.

Tom Love

(HDCS ’04)
1937-2023

Tom Love, who holds an honorary doctorate in Commercial Science from Oklahoma City University, passed away in March. He was the founder and executive chair of Love’s Travel Stops and inducted into OCU’s Oklahoma Commerce and Industry Hall of Honor in 1998. He and his wife and business partner, Judy, are great supporters of the university through the establishment of Love’s Entrepreneurial Center within the Meinders School of Business and the Love Boat at the OCU Devon Boathouse. Their widespread philanthropy can be seen throughout Oklahoma, and OCU is honored to have been one of many organizations touched by their generosity.

Love was born in Oklahoma City in 1937, attended St. Gregory’s Preparatory School in Shawnee, St. John’s University in Minnesota, and joined the United States Marines Corps in 1954. He and Judy married in 1960 the day after Christmas, and they founded Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores in Watonga, Oklahoma, in 1964. He was the first to create the concept of a gas station with grocery offerings, now commonplace across the country. Love’s is headquartered in Oklahoma City and has since grown to 644 locations in 42 states, with more than 50 in Oklahoma. The couple have four children, nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

C. Blue Clark

1946-2023

Blue Clark passed away in December after a long life of serving the Oklahoma City University community and Native American people. He was a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation and started his career at OCU in 1991 when he joined as the executive vice president of academic affairs. He served as interim president in 1997 and taught at both the law school and main campus, retiring in 2016.

Clark graduated from Northwest Classen High School and the University of Oklahoma before working at OCU and serving as a consultant for the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of the American Indian in Washington D.C. and the First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City. He was honored as the Indian of the Year in 2013 by the National Indian Education Association and Ambassador of the Year for the Red Earth Festival in 2015. Additionally, Clark established the field of American Indian Studies at California State University, the University of Utah and Morningside University.

Ann Lacy

(HDHL ’01)
1927-2023

Ann Lacy and her incredible legacy permeates the Oklahoma City University campus through the numerous ways she impacted the institution. From the Ann Lacy Stadium, which is home to numerous softball national championships, to the Ann Lacy Admissions and Visitor Center that offers a warm welcome to visitors and potential students and the Ann Lacy School of American Dance and Entertainment that consistently ranks within the top dance schools in the United States, these facilities have welcomed, championed and taught thousands of students throughout the past 20 years. Her involvement with OCU began as a result of her husband, James Alexander, who was a former dean of the Meinders School of Business.

The Ann Lacy Admissions and Visitor Center was dedicated in her name in 2003, with the School of American Dance and Arts Management being renamed to honor Ann Lacy in 2004. She was a major player in the renovation and construction of the Edith Kinney Gaylord Center just three years later in 2007, and the Ann Lacy Stadium was dedicated in 2008, with the first game played being a sweep over Mid-America Christian University. She served for many years as a trustee emerita, was a recipient of an honorary doctor of humane letters from OCU, was a generous supporter in the OCU centennial campaign, “Lighting the World—One Star at a Time” and studied writing at OCU. Lacy additionally established the OCU-NYC Spring Break Workshops where students spend a week learning to work and live in New York City from alumni professionals. She put time, energy and love into her passion of helping Oklahoma City University students grow and develop before passing away in August. Few students will be able to say they were not touched by Ann Lacy during their time at OCU.

1940s

Verna Wycherley ’46

1950s

Wilma McHenry ’50
Vernon Frame ’51
Geraldine (Jere) LaCrosse Knox ’51
Rosanna Grossman Beckham ’55
Gerald Knight ’55, ’60
Larry Bradshaw ’57
Barbara Parker ’57, ’73
Raymond Gilbert ’58
Rodney Campbell ’59
Ronald Norgaard ’59

1960s

Clifford Daniels ’61
Leonard Northcutt ’63
William “Bill” Weaver ’63
C. Norman Blacklee ’64
David Necco ’65
Reginald Parsons ’65
Buvil West ’65
Luther Cowan ’66, ’73
John Murphy, Jr. ’66
Robert Stearns ’66
Craig Winborn ’66
Cecil Callicott ’67
James Clark ’67, ‘89
Robert “Bob” Mayhew ’67
Cheryl Blackwell ’68
Kenneth Carney ’68
Richard Hasley ’68
Richard Linsly ’68
Lester “L.K.” Pitchford, Jr. ’68

1970s

Ralph Smith ’70
Gregory York ’70
Charles Alden ’73
Charles Campbell ’74
James Hetherington ’74
Tom Cook ’74
Lucille Rose ’74
Evelyn Thomas ’74
Gholam “Joe” Ahmadifar ’75
Dan Hensley ’75
William Simpson ’75
Edward Sutter III ’75
Gerald “Jerry” Hill ’76
Ralph “Ted” Stricker ’76
Michael Kanz ’77
Leon Collins IV ’78
Jack Smith ’78
Robert Woehleke ’78
David Kedy ’79

1980s

Tomilou Liddell ’81
James McCright ’82
Paul Smith ’82, ’89
Margorie Johnston Ramana ’83
John “Sonny” Kanoski ’84
Gene Pekah ’84
Joseph Walkowski ’84
Gary Chappell ’85
Riley Nix ’85
Janice Green Marsh ’86
Lee Howard ’87
Scott Carter ’89

1990s

Donna Miller ’90
Derick Peters ’90
Kathy Snodgrass ’90
Earnest “Ernie” Upton, Jr. ’90
Ralph Zeller ’90
Barbara Covalt ’93
Debra Scadden ’93
Peter Palughi ’96
Kathryn Wilson ’96
Joseph Carter III ’97
Carolyn Erickson ’98
Joyce Calderwood ’99, ’01
Daniel Dooley ’99

2000s

Cindy Shaw ’07, ’09

2020s

Nathan LeBlanc ’22

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