6 People that make Norman great

Owens personifies giving spirit

By Tom Blakey
The Norman Transcript

Steve Owens credits his parents for influencing him with the value of giving.

“I just watched my parents who always were trying to do something to better other people’s lives,” said Owens, interviewed recently in his office at the Steve Owens Insurance Group in Norman.

Owens, who will be 61 Dec. 9, grew up in Miami, Okla. — one of 11 kids — two of whom died in their infancy.

“We didn’t have too much money, but my parents were always helping others,” he said, taking food to neighbors, helping people move, getting involved in church. Owens remembers his dad co-signing a loan for someone else when he didn’t have the money to risk himself.

“That had a lot of influence on me. I give a lot of credit to my parents and the way I was raised,” he said.

Owens, 1969 Heisman Trophy winner at the University of Oklahoma, went on to play professional football for the Detroit Lions. When he retired from the Lions, Owens said he had business opportunities in Detroit, Tulsa and Edmond.

Instead, Owens and his wife Barbara “decided we wanted to raise our family in Norman,” settling here in 1976.

“I’ve never been in a community so giving,” he said.

The Norman community and the university community offer a “unique combination,” he said.

“We try to make the community better. There are so many projects and everyone steps up and helps,” Owens said.

Owens’ own heart and wallet has been invested in helping people living with mental illness. He and Barbara recently saw to fruition a five-year, $1.2 million campaign to fund construction of a new facility for Thunderbird Clubhouse, a United Way agency designed to assist chronic mental health clients with rehabilitative training in basic health, living and employment skills.

Thunderbird Clubhouse has been a passion for Owens, his wife and family since Owens and son Blake visited the facility for the first time about 12 years ago. Blake, 25, had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Owens said his son, on their way home, turned to him and said: ‘Dad, those people need your help.’”

Blake died Sept. 6, 1997, and the Owenses have since become Thunderbird Clubhouse’s chief benefactors, establishing the Steve Owens Foundation and providing unsparing financial and emotional support to the program and its members.

The new clubhouse, to be completed in the spring, will more than double the size of its present location and feature a computer lab and other modern trappings.

Owens said he fell into a severe depression following his son’s death, an experience that’s “given me a better appreciation and insight into what others are going through.”

Pam Sanford, the clubhouse’s executive director, said Owens “lifts everybody’s spirits when he visits the clubhouse.”

“He comes in as a human being, not a celebrity, and it’s that one-on-one, down-to-earth contact that means so much to everybody. Steve’s our champion,” she said.

But Owens insists his familiarity with clubhouse members does more for him.

“Whenever I’m having a tough day, I get in my car and go spend time with those folks,” Owens said, his face brightening. “They make me feel good. The whole experience has been a blessing for us.”

Meanwhile, Owens’ good work continues to snowball. A founding member of the Norman Public School Foundation, Owens used the Steve Owens Foundation as a vehicle in raising $1 million for his hometown schools, and raises money for Noble schools. Owens played a key role in raising funds to begin a Ronald McDonald House in Oklahoma City and gives time to numerous boards, causes and projects.

“When I leave the business world, I want to continue trying to help other people. If each of us could do just one thing every day — a random act of kindness as they call it — the world would be such a better place,” he said.

Jennifer Baker brings the Sooner Theatre to life

By Peggy Laizure
The Norman Transcript

In 2002, Jennifer Heavner Baker was asked by Gary Kramer to consider a seat on the board of directors of the Sooner Theatre. She did for a couple of months, but when the talk turned to restructuring the theater and hiring a director, she knew she could offer more on the other side of the curtain.

Baker quit the board, interviewed for the director’s position and was hired. At the same time, the theatrical division came to life. Shortly after becoming director, Baker started a children’s program — The Studio of The Sooner Theatre.

“The children’s theater was a big part. It was one of my goals from the day I interviewed,” she said.

She had worked with children on the east coast and knew Norman didn’t have anything like that, she said.

“At the time, I was talking to a cast member of one of our shows and she suggested a child camp,” Baker said. “Melany Pattison, she’s my camp partner.”

“I’ve been a choreographer for so many high schools all over the country,” Baker said. “We have so many talented kids here in Norman and for many, the only outlet for them is a high school musical.”

There were 300 children enrolled in different musical, dancing and singing camps this summer and nearly that many enrolled in the fall classes, Baker said.

Baker was born and raised in Norman and graduated from the University of Oklahoma. When she was young her mother took her to see the Nutcracker and “I just couldn’t wait,” she said. She knew then she wanted to be a dancer.

She began dancing lessons at age 5 with Marie Keeling. Her big break came with Norman Parks and Recreation. She took a theater class at the Rotary House and she walked across the stage as a Georgia Peach.

After school, she hit the road “just went out and started working anything related to the business,” Baker said. “Six Flags, performing in musicals, corporate theater, directing musicals, choreographing, anything related. It all paid the bills.”

She has toured as Carlotta in “Phantom” and Miss Mona in “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.”

“I am so rated G but Miss Mona was probably one of my favorite roles,” Baker said. “If we could ever do a cleaned up version, I would love to do it here. It is a true story.”

Additionally, she has appeared in commercials, television and film. Regionally she has acted in nearly 30 commercials.

“Kerr McGee, Wendys, Deaconess, everything from pizza to hospital to gas and telephone companies,” Baker said.

Commercials she has choreographed include the Oklahoma Lottery, Taco Mayo, Riverwind and Six Flags Amusement Parks.

Her most recent roles include Nancy in The Sooner Theatre’s production of “Oliver!,” and she also performed in “Lucky Stiff.”

Baker came back to Norman in 1999 to finish the three hours required for her degree at OU that had been hanging over her head and then she married Jay Baker and went back on the road for two years.

She had met Jay through church when she was 5 and he was 6. She stole his pop bottles at Falls Creek church camp. They became reacquainted while she was performing at Discoveryland and Jay was living in Tulsa. They began a seven year long distance relationship. But both wanted to move back to Norman. Addison and Aubrey, their children, are both active in The Studio.

She moved back to Norman for one simple reason. “Isn’t it the greatest place in the world to live? I love it.”

Don Adkins: A volunteer’s volunteer

By M. Scott Carter
The Norman Transcript

Don Adkins’ personal philosophy is pretty simple: You get out of life what you put into it.

And he’s spent his lifetime giving.

An Oklahoma native, born in Shawnee, Adkins finds his pleasure in helping others.

“You get out of anything just what you put into it,” he said. “And that can be through church, the Chamber of Commerce, the Rotary Club, whatever gives you an open door to the those things that are pleasing to you.”

For the 77-year-old Adkins that includes everything from being an adult literacy coach to reading books to a group of local pre-k students.

“Shoot, man, those little kids are wonderful. When I get there, it’s ‘here’s Mr. Don, here’s Mr. Don.’ If you don’t feel good after that, you’ve got a real serious problem.”

A former executive with the Boy Scouts of America, Adkins retired as a regional administrator for the Scouts; his territory covered Oklahoma, Arkansas and north Texas. Adkins said he chose the Boy Scouts as a career because of his previous experience as a Scout, himself.

“When I completed my college degree, I had the choice to coach for one of my old college coaches or go to work for the Boy Scouts,” he said. “And, because I’d been a Scout I chose them.”

He retired from the Boy Scouts in 1994.

And since then, he’s been “doin’ what needed to be done” in Norman.

“I try to help as much as possible,” he said. “For me that’s the giving that makes life enjoyable; kinda the payback for what other people have done for me. You see, we all pay ‘rent,’ in our lives and part of that ‘rent’ is doing things that need doing.”

A member of his church group, the Norman Rotary Club, the Past Leaders Alumni, the Eastern Oklahoma College Board of Trustees and others, Adkins says he is just as busy in retirement as he was in his professional career. “I believe you are measured by those things you do because they need to be done,” he said.

And sometimes, he said, those small projects have a profound effect on the volunteer.

“There were several things that stand out, though for me, teaching someone how to read and write, well, that was a very satisfying experience.”

A second experience was helping another man learn to read so that man could read his Bible.

“You develop a personal sense of satisfaction when you’re really helping a person accomplish something they’ve never done.”

He also credits his membership in Rotary International with giving him the opportunity to do things he wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise.

“I’ve been involved in Rotary for 52 years,” he said. “And it lets you do things collectively that could not possibly do individually — on a worldwide scale.”

The end result, he said, is simply a better place to live and the satisfaction of having helped someone else.

“Honestly, I don’t think Norman’s No. 6, I think it’s the best place to live,” he said. “And I believe that, because here, people are doing the things that need to be done. This is what makes the community where we live. Besides, I was in the business of encouraging people to volunteer.”

And that, Adkins said, required him to give back.

“When you’re selling volunteerism and you’re not willing to volunteer, well, you’re in trouble.”

Kathey Drummond is a woman in motion

By Carol Cole-Frowe
The Norman Transcript

Kathleen “Kathey” Drummond doesn’t pause for much.

Drummond is Norman Regional Health System’s vice president of communication and system support services, a wide-ranging job that encompasses its Foundation, volunteers, public relations, education center, health promotions, community service, food and nutrition services, housekeeping, laundry and linen, distance and travel, chaplains, media services and the diabetes center.

“I have always multi-tasked. I always have three books going on at home. I would never watch TV without something in my hands. … I just wouldn’t do it,” Drummond said.

She has been working for Norman Regional Hospital for 14 years, a job she said she loves and brings much joy to her life.

Her involvement with Norman Regional began when she was appointed to the Norman Regional Hospital Authority board by former mayor Dick Reynolds in 1990.

She accepted a job with the NRH Foundation in late 1994. Her job grew from there.

“I just kept adding departments,” Drummond said.

One of the best things about her job is seeing satisfaction among hospital employees, physicians and volunteers.

That translates to a high level of satisfied patients.

The variety of departments she manages requires her to meet with the groups separately. And the commonality of all the departments focuses on their primary goal.

“Their number one goal is patient care,” she said. “Everyone’s goal is patient care.”

For several years, Drummond criss-crossed the country as a hostess for TWA Airlines, flying out of San Francisco.

It was the “glam” years, when hostesses wore their skirts precisely to the middle of their kneecaps, white gloves and hose.

She was named TWA’s “Hostess with the Mostest.”

“It was like a big paid vacation,” Drummond said.

She and her first husband moved to Norman in 1971 so that he could attend petroleum land management school at the University of Oklahoma.

“I just fell in love with Norman,” she said. “And we started being ‘normal’ and having children.”

She became executive director of the local United Way prior to her involvement with NRHS.

And all of her experiences led her to where she is now.

“In the hospital setting … seeing the big picture. … It’s so much fun,” she said. “I am exactly where I want to be. … Life has been very, very good.”

Drummond counts among her blessings that her children and grandchildren live in Norman.

And she met and married Gordon Drummond, a retired professor who has coached soccer at Norman High School for 25 years.

“I don’t think I could be happier,” she said.

And she loves her city deeply.

“Maybe the love of Norman means you have an exuberance for living here,” said Drummond, who relished her adopted city’s being named No. 6 in the recently released CNN/Money magazine Best Small Places to Live.

She wonders aloud about the best part of Norman that is the hardest to measure.

“The people in this town. That’s the intangible,” she said.

Drummond should know. She’s one of them.

Ellen Usry cares about Norman

By Meghan McCormick
The Norman Transcript

Inside Norman City Hall, Ellen Usry holds the title of deputy city clerk. But to the rest of Norman she’s a humanitarian who devotes her time and resources to numerous organizations linked to helping children.

For instance, since 1994, she and her husband Bob Usry have coordinated the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards Camp held every summer. Usry said neither she nor her husband knew much about the camp before that time.

“Basically a friend that lives in Ardmore asked Bob to start it,” Usry said. “It had never been in this part of the state. Bob didn’t have a clue of how to do it. He got the help of a few people. Between all of us, we put together the first one which was 29 kids and it worked.”

Usry said over the years, the camp has improved. Teenagers converge at Camp Goddard near Sulphur and further their team building and leadership skills.

“This is work for 15 years and we’ve gotten a reputation throughout the world for it,” she said.

Usry said she’s proud of the leaders born from the camp.

“They turn out good and they come back to us,” she said. “They remember a lot of the things they learn during that week.”

When Usry took a nine-year absence from her deputy clerk position, she kept busy volunteering with organizations including the Assistance League of Norman.

“The nine years that I was not working, that’s what I did,” she said.

Usry said the Assistance League clothes more than 1,000 children in a year’s time.

“Our facility looks like Target,” she said. “We have dressing rooms, racks of clothes. We make sure that child leaves with clothes that fit them.”

Usry said now that she’s returned to Norman City Hall, she gives monetary donations.

Assistance League President Anita Bednar said she enjoyed having Usry’s help with the organization.

“Ellen and I worked together on the membership committee,” Bednar said. “She took care of the database, picked up the dues. She kept us all in line.”

Bednar said Usry never turned away a chance to help someone.

“I think she was a wonderful volunteer, always willing to step up and do any job at any time,” she said.

“I always loved being on a committee that Ellen was on because I liked to work with her. I knew whatever job she had, it would get done. I never had to worry about her.

Usry has also volunteered for the Citizens Advisory Board for the Department of Human Services in Cleveland County and Royal Kids Camp.

She volunteers her time with the younger generation because she likes children and teenagers, she said.

“It’s important to me to be there and tell them some of the issues I experienced,” she said.

Usry said she mixes well with the younger generation.

“We just want to help them and be there,” she said. “I do well with young people.”

Former City of Norman clerk Mary Hatley is a longtime friend of Usry’s. Hatley retired in January after working 41 years for the city.

“Ellen is a very caring person which makes her a wonderful person to work for the city as well as all her community activities,” Hatley said.

The women worked together 10 years at city hall. Hatley said she was glad when Usry decided to re-apply for her old job earlier this year.

“Ellen is just a big-hearted caring person, she and Bob both,” she said.

Chuck Thompson is the man about town

By Julianna Parker
The Norman Transcript

Nearly everyone involved in Norman’s public life knows Chuck Thompson.

The president and CEO of Republic Bank and Trust has had his hands in almost every community sector: business, the arts, government, transportation, the hospital, downtown revitalization, education and United Way charities among others.

If Norman Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Anna-Mary Suggs had to pick one word to describe Thompson, she would say “involved.”

“Because I think you can hardly find anything going on in Norman that Chuck or the bank is not involved with in one way or another,” she said.

Suggs has known Thompson more than 30 years and works with him on chamber projects. He is a past president of the chamber. When asked how he manages to help out in so many areas, Suggs joked that she sometimes wondered if he had a twin. Then she added a real answer.

“I think he’s just really passionate about the Norman community.”

Thompson himself attributes his passion for the community with his desire to help out in every sector.

A fifth generation Oklahoman and third generation resident of Cleveland County, Thompson has invested himself in the community over the years.

“Growing up, my dad always said you have to pay your community rent,” Thompson said.

And he’s taken that philosophy to his bank, too. Thompson has tried to make Republic a place that gives back to the community. He said the bank is positioned to influence the community for the better.

“It seemed like to me a community bank was the place that had the most reach,” he said. With that idea comes a lot of responsibility, and Thompson has taken it seriously.

“This isn’t our money, it’s the community’s money,” he said.

And in turn, the community has been good to the bank.

“The strength of Republic comes from the strength of the community,” Thompson said. “And the support that we have received at the bank from our customers is the primary reason that we have been able to stay strong.”

Ed Copelin, owner of Copelin’s Office Supply, who banks at Republic and has worked with Thompson on downtown projects for years, said there are few areas of Norman that Thompson has not touched in a significant way. And for each project he takes part in, Thompson throws himself into all of it, Copelin said.

“Chuck probably puts a new meaning to the word ‘involved’ because he doesn’t just lend his name to projects, he does his homework.”

Executive Director of the Norman Economic Development Coalition Don Wood said Thompson also gets his staff at the bank involved in community projects. About four or five years ago, Wood began paying attention to the rankings cities were given, including that of Money Magazine.

“Chuck and Republic Bank kind of took that on as a cause,” Wood said.

Thompson assigned a staff person to be in contact with the people who did the rankings and reasoned with them about what the criteria should be for ranking the best cities in the U.S.

For example, Wood said one of Money’s criteria for the best small cities was per capita income. With high income as one of the markers, every college town in the country was taken out of the running. But Wood said the staff at Republic eventually convinced the pollsters that income wasn’t the thing that made cities great.

Those efforts on the part of Thompson and Republic paid off, Wood said. Six years ago, Norman wasn’t even ranked on Money’s list. Then in 2006 it was ranked 40th. This year, Money Magazine named Norman No. 6 best small city to live in in the U.S.

That’s just one example of the way Thompson uses the bank to accomplish good in the community, Wood said. He’s not the only one in town using his business to better Norman, Wood said.

“But he’s just so committed to the community that it’s just given him some leverage to do things for the community,” Wood said.

6 Institutions to watch Grow

‘Understanding the entire sky’ the goal of OU’s National Weather Center

By M. Scott Carter
The Norman Transcript

For the staff and professionals of the University of Oklahoma’s National Weather Center, the Latin phrase inscribed on the outside of their building is the mission.

Cogito Totum Caelum — Understand the Entire Sky.

And it’s something they work on 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days each year.

“Understanding the entire sky,” said Dr. John Snow, dean of the College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences, “is an endless process.”

For Snow and his staff, it’s not just about knowing what causes a thunderstorm or how long the rain will last.

It’s also about prevention.

“Soon I believe we’re going to get to where we will be forecasting tornados 45 minutes to an hour in the future,” he said. “That’s the sort of thing that will happen in this building.”

And at OU, that research has been going on since the 1960s.

“Back in 1960, the Weather Bureau approached university president George Lynn Cross and made him an offer. They said if OU would help, they would locate the National Severe Storms Lab here.”

A deal was made and OU, Snow said, brought people from Texas A & M University to Norman.

“All through the 1960s the meteorology programs were on the north base,” he said.

A fire changed everything.

On April 13, 1967, a fire swept through the wooden building that was the home of the School of Meteorology and the building burned to the ground in 20 minutes.

After that, the university moved the meteorology program off the north base to other “temporary quarters.”

Through the 1970s and ’80s, Snow said the department was “split” with the school and related entities on campus, and the Severe Storms Lab on Westheimer Field.

“There was a longstanding desire to get back together,” he said. “To get all research in one place.”

They would stay separated for decades.

“By 1992, we had 140 people working in a building designed to hold 60 or 70,” he said.

Realizing they needed more space, Snow said administrators began trying to find newer, more modern quarters which would bring all the units under one roof.

“Doug Forsythe worked for the next six years trying to get people to raise funds, design a building, and find a place to locate that building,” Snow said.

Those efforts intensified after the May 3, 1999, tornado destroyed a good portion of Moore and south Oklahoma City.

“That played a key role in convincing the federal government to help,” he said. “Then-Congressman J.C. Watts, along with Sen. Jim Inhofe were able to get federal funds and President Boren was able to leverage those funds with state money to build the center.”

In addition, Snow said Boren “personally” placed the weather center on its current location.

“Trying to find a place on the main campus for a 250,000-square-foot building isn’t easy,” he said. “There aren’t a lot of places you can build that size of a building and not fundamentally change the face of the campus.”

Opened in 2006, the National Weather Center is considered the nation’s state-of-the-art weather facility; it houses several federal entities, including: The National Severe Storms Lab, the National Storm Prediction Center, the Regional Forecast Office, the Training and Warning Decision Center and the Radar Operations Center.

The radar center, Snow said, is the biggest component of the weather center and is responsible for maintaining the nation’s radar network.

Today, the center employs about 450 people. And, more that 200 students attend classes there, he said.

“We are trying to improve the tools that forecasters have in front of them,” he said. “We’re trying to do the basic science and the applied science so they can do a better job.”

Nanotechnology expanding in Norman

By Julianna Parker
The Norman Transcript

University of Oklahoma chemical engineering professor Daniel Resasco discovered a new way to create single-walled nanotubes that made the product feasible for large-scale production.

But instead of just writing a paper for an academic journal, Resasco started a company in 2001 to create the nanotubes in a collaboration between private industry and academia.

Today, Southwest NanoTechnologies (SWeNT) is a growing company receiving international recognition.

As an engineering professor, Resasco said the end aim of research is always application, but this discovery was different.

“In this case, it has been a bit more than we expected,” he said.

He invented the CoMoCAT process to create single-walled nanotubes (SWNTs) that was reliable, affordable and easily duplicated for the first time ever.

“The area of carbon nanotubes is very new,” Resasco said.

Multi-wall nanotubes (MWNTs) have been around for years, but are not as valuable as single-wall nanotubes, said David Arthur, CEO of Southwest NanoTechnologies.

Nanotubes are microscopic layers of graphite that have been rolled into tubes. When multiple tubes are stuck inside one another, they are MWNTs. If a single tube is created, it is a SWNT.

“The real excitement with carbon nanotubes is with the single wall,” Arthur said. But they were hard to make and expensive until Resasco and his research team developed the CoMoCAT process.

Nanotubes can be used for a variety of purposes, including medical, electronics, automotive, aerospace and energy. They are incredibly strong, so can be added to things in a coating to make them more durable, like a hockey stick.

“They’re the strongest, toughest materials per unit weight,” Arthur said.

Nanotubes also conduct electricity well.

“They have 1,000 times more current carrying capacity than copper for the same weight,” Arthur said. They could be used to make light weight batteries for laptop computers or make up a stealth coating.

Nanotubes also are transparent and can be applied easily, even sprayed on with a painting machine.

Although SWeNT knows its product can be widely used, the market for nanotubes is still developing, Resasco said.

As companies realize that SWNTs are feasible, they will begin developing products to use them.

“The future is looking really great, because as those companies develop products with nanotubes the market will grow,” Resasco said.

It looks like the market has already started growing. Arthur said SWeNT has received many new inquiries into the product recently.

One of the reasons for that is the company’s new plant.

In June, SWeNT moved into a new manufacturing facility, at 2501 Technology Place, where its single-wall carbon nanotube production capability has increased 100-fold at one-tenth the cost.

In August, The National Institute of Standards and Technology announced it will use SWeNT’s single-wall carbon nanotubes as the starting material for a Standard Reference Material.

SRMs are used to perform instrument calibrations, verify the accuracy of specific measurements and support the development of new measurement methods. Industry, academia and government use NIST SRMs to facilitate commerce and trade and to advance research and development.

Arthur said NIST’s use is big news for SWeNT.

“So this quality is recognized across the industry,” he said.

Now that the company has recognition and a new manufacturing facility, SWeNT will focus on making its nanotubes easy to use.

It already has several materials available. It is developing an ink that has the SWNTs evenly distributed in it so customers can purchase the ink and easily spray it onto products.

“Right now we’re at a critical point,” Arthur said. Southwest NanoTechnologies has the ability to make single-wall carbon nanotubes at the right scale quality and price.

“Now we have to develop application-specific product forms,” Arthur said.

HealthPlex — ‘green’ and on time

By Carol Cole-Frowe
The Norman Transcript

Norman Regional Hospital System’s sleek, new $110 million HealthPlex is rising just west of Interstate 35 at Tecumseh Road — and it’s on time.

The 400,000-square-foot HealthPlex is scheduled to debut its three-story Women’s and Children’s Hospital and five-story tower for cardiology, orthopedics and neurosurgery in July 2009. It will be licensed for 135 beds, including 19 neonatal intensive care beds and 32 cardiovascular beds.

The complex will have eight operating rooms with the ability to expand to 11 rooms.

University of Oklahoma graduate Daryle Voss joined NRHS July 11 as the HealthPlex vice president and chief administrative officer. Most recently he was chief executive officer of Matagorda County Hospital District in Bay City, Texas. Prior to that, he was CEO of the Kingfisher Regional Hospital.

“My job is to work on operations in the facility,” Voss said of the HealthPlex, including staffing, equipping and integrating the third hospital into the system. “We really are doing some special things here. I feel blessed to be a part of it.”

The builders are scheduled to turn over the keys in May, and the facility would accept its first patient in July.

The HealthPlex is integrating several “green” elements into the building to make it as sustainable as possible.

Sun shades will reduce solar heat gain, with a light-colored roof cap sheet reducing its “heat island effect.”

Patient rooms will have individually controlled temperature settings and lighting systems.

An irrigation controller will conserve water and prevent erosion.

The concrete structure integrates recycled steel into its reinforcing steel beams. Furniture in the hospital will contain recycled steel and aluminum.

JRBR are the architects for the project, in conjunction with PageSoutherlandPage.

When the HealthPlex is unveiled next summer, renovations on the Porter Avenue main campus are scheduled to begin.

Perry native Voss said he loved living in Norman when he was going to school.

“How great to be able to come back to Norman and live here and organize and operate a new hospital,” Voss said.

Post Office’s National Center for Employee Development continues to grow

By Meghan McCormick
The Norman Transcript

The National Center for Employee Development opened in 1970 and hasn’t stopped growing.

Scott Morgan, manager of the NCED, said “We provide all types of training but mostly mail processing training.”

This summer, NCED unveiled its newest machine: the Flats Sequencing System.

“We are trying to reduce costs and keep postage costs down,” Morgan said.

He said the Norman branch has the only two FSS training modules in the southwest region. About 100 systems will be placed throughout the country in areas that generate the most flat mail volume.

The FSS will sort flat mail into letter carriers’ route sequence, as the Delivery Bar Code Sorters do for letter mail. Flat mail includes materials such as magazines and 8-by-10-inch and larger envelopes.

Morgan said each system can save the postal service about 12 carrier jobs.

“It has a big impact on cost savings,” he said.

Pamela Osburn, who handles communications for NCED, said it takes about 25 trucks to deliver all the pieces for the Flats Sequencing System. Employees will begin training with the new system in January.

Osburn said the United States Postal Service is self-supporting and mandated to deliver to everybody in the country.

“We have to be ever more conscientious about saving money,” she said.

Robert Kendrick, manager of Automation Systems Branch at NCED, said FSS stretches 600 feet in the Northeast Learning Center.

“This whole machine is an operator and it places the flats in containers,” he said.

Kendrick said when the postal training center opened 38 years ago, it took up the top floors of Couch Tower on the University of Oklahoma campus. In 1988, the business moved to its location at 2701 E. Imhoff Road. Thousands of Postal Service employees attending training sessions and live on the NCED campus.

He said the center occupies 72 acres on Highway 9 near 24th Ave SE. NCED owns 12 acres on the facility’s northwest side that could be developed later.

“Usually new equipment drives the growth,” Kendrick said.

Crucible Foundry in full-tilt production

By Tom Blakey
The Norman Transcript

Steven White, director of operations for the Crucible, strolled through the foundry’s courtyard on a fine autumn afternoon last week. Surveying the dozen or so finished sculptures in the courtyard garden, a lily pond with its soothing fountain stream and a weeping willow rustling in the breeze, White said:

“Sometimes when I come out here I’ll see people eating their lunches or students taking a break from their studies. It makes me feel good that this is a destination point for people to come and relax.”

The Crucible has become a popular destination for travelers and artists alike. Housed inside the historic brick walls of the former Carey Lumber Building — off Legacy Trail just north of Gray Street — artists and metal workers at the Crucible are involved in several projects:

Production Manager Scott Adams is putting the finishing touches on Harold Holden’s “The Ranger,” the last of three Holden sculptures being installed at Southwestern Oklahoma State University’s Alva, Weatherford and Enid sites.

Metal finisher Josh Pitt is polishing off Holden’s “Sod Buster,” destined for Dallas.

Gareth Andrews’ Iron Range Veterans’ Memorial project features construction of a bronze eagle 26 feet wide and 14 feet tall. Shielded inside the eagle’s wings and an American flag stand five life-size veterans representing all branches of the military service.

Another impressive bronze, also headed for Dallas, Matthew Palmer’s “Bobcat” looks ready to pounce on an unsuspecting reporter.

“Next year will be the Crucible’s 10th year,” White said. “When we started, we became very involved with the Centennial Land Run project.”

The Land Run Monument, in Oklahoma City’s Bricktown District, commemorates the opening of Indian land in Oklahoma Territory.

When complete in 2015, the sculpture-in-progress will feature 45 heroic (life and one-half size) figures of land run participants, frozen in motion as they race to claim new homesteads. The project will be one of the largest freestanding bronze sculptures in the world, spanning a distance of 365 feet in length by 36 feet in width and over 16 feet in height.

“That project has been a great experience for us, helping us to build our reputation in the region and the country for doing quality work and getting it done on time,” White said.

And while other industries are suffering from an economic slowdown, White says production at the Crucible’s is going full-tilt.

“We’re definitely not lacking work,” he said. “It makes me feel good, all the projects we have going on and the value people are placing on public art,” he said.

White said a Public Arts Board, established last year, oversees the Public Art Fund that provides money for sculptures, fountains, monuments and other original works of art on public property. Residents can donate a monthly amount to the fund through their utility bills. Individual and group donations to the fund also are accepted.

Public art generates civic pride and vitality, White said.

“Legacy Trail has done wonders for Norman and the Borens’ contributions to public art (at the University of Oklahoma) are second to none,” he said.

And yet, the public arts fund has been slow to build, he said. White and others have begun an educational campaign with local schools, civic groups and the general public to increase understanding and awareness of the fund and public art in Norman.

Meanwhile, Crucible workers are involved in several upcoming projects:

“We’re involved with artist Shan Gray in planning for the Veterans’ Memorial at Reaves Park. We’ll also be working with artist John Gooden on a memorial to Austin Haley (the 5-year-old boy shot and killed by police in Noble last August), commissioned by the First State Bank in Noble.”

Another Gray project, “The Great American” is planned as a 37-story-tall Indian sculpture that will be installed in Tulsa.

The First Christian Church in Norman is commissioning a “beautiful chalice for their disciple garden,” White said.

Ten years after its establishment, the workload is plentiful at the Crucible.

J.D. McCarty Center plans to break ground on Camp ClapHans soon

By Peggy Laizure
The Norman Transcript

The J.D. McCarty Center for children with developmental disabilities is for the care and treatment of children with special needs.

Founded in 1946, the center was established to treat children with cerebral palsy. Today, the center has treated more than 70 different diagnoses of developmental disabilities.

The center employs physical, occupational and speech therapists, registered nurses and LPNs, dietitians, physicians and pediatric psychologists.

The center moved to its present site Jan. 22, 2001. The 100,000-square-foot center sits on 80 acres on East Robinson Street and 24th Avenue NE. A staff of more than 200 people maintains an average daily inpatient census of 30. The average length of stay is about one month.

The center first opened in a building on the U.S. Navy’s former South Base, with the first child admitted in 1948. State Rep. J.D. McCarty used his influence to pass a bill to build the Oklahoma Cerebral Palsy Institute and another bill, sponsored by State Sen. Phil Smalley of Norman, covered annual operating expenses.

Central State Hospital, now known as Griffin Memorial Hospital, sold 10 acres of land for $1 to build the facility. The center provides a comprehensive program of rehabilitative care to Oklahoma’s children (up to age 21) with developmental disabilities and strives to enhance quality of life throughout adulthood.

Not only do the children receive medical attention, some of them are taught daily living skills, such as cooking, housekeeping, laundry and how to manage money and obtain transportation.

The center works with schools to provide therapy sessions and also can provide services to rural Oklahoma.

Ten years ago, the center began talking about Camp ClapHans. The camp will be built on the southwest corner of the campus.

“Camp ClapHans is a summer camp project of the McCarthy center for kids with special needs and to the best of our knowledge it is the only camp in the state of Oklahoma especially designed for kids with disabilities,” said Greg Gaston, marketing director.

It will be a basic one week summer camp with arts and crafts, adaptive ropes course, storytelling, singing of songs, horseback riding, a tree house with special activities and a zero entry swimming pool with splash pad features such as water cannons and water sprays.

The camp will require a large number of volunteers who will work with a small camp staff, Gaston said.

“There will be two levels of volunteers,” Gaston said. “Group runners, 14-16 years old, who will be camp gofers to help with whatever needs doing.”

And camp buddies, 17 and older, who will be paired one-on-one with a camper.

Gaston said he anticipates the camp fully operating in the summer of 2010.

Many volunteers are needed to help the center with maintenance, groundskeeping, warehouse, kitchen, clerical and administration, nursing, therapy and recreation. Anyone interested may call Gaston at 307-2800 or e-mail him at web_pg4@jdmc.org.