Mitchell joins higher-ed stalwarts in hall of fame
By Adam Huffer

When describing his 38-year legacy at Oklahoma State University, 2005 Oklahoma Higher Education Hall of Fame inductee Dr. Earl D. Mitchell Jr. recalls a story about the 19 th century biologist and chemist Louis Pasteur. Reputedly, the man who said, “Chance favors the prepared mind,” was blessed by good fortune in his discovery of chirality.

“Pasteur went on to discover many, many things, but as a doctoral student, he demonstrated that organic molecules exist in right-handed and left-handed forms by comparing crystals of tartaric acid,” Mitchell said. “We now know that had he not been in Paris at that time of year, with perfect environmental conditions, he would not have achieved the crystallization.”

“Without any kind of climate control, what Pasteur did would have been impossible just about anywhere else in the world,” he said. “Sometimes, doing things is all about being in the right place at the right time.”

OSU has been the right place for Mitchell since 1967 when, as a postdoctoral student, he joined Dr. George Waller’s research team in the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology department. The state’s university had recently become the first in the United States to possess a gas chromatograph mass-spectrometer, setting the stage for groundbreaking research.

The group’s work led to numerous publications, including a 1969 Science magazine cover story on feline metabolism, as well as productive collaborations. Years later, when the Nixon administration launched a federal initiative to fund meriting agricultural research programs at historically black colleges and universities, Mitchell co-wrote Langston University’s successful proposal with Dr. Steve Latimer, a colleague of Waller’s at the school.

The mass-spectrometer is now an artifact in the Smithsonian Institute, and many of Mitchell’s early collaborators have moved on, but in each of his subsequent capacities – as a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, assistant dean of OSU’s Graduate College and associate vice president for Multicultural Affairs – he has sought to create opportunities for others.

Since it was established in 1994, Mitchell has served as the Oklahoma director for the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation. The National Science Foundation-funded program seeks to increase the number of students pursuing science, mathematics, engineering and technology degrees with scholarship support, summer internships and research opportunities.

“When we started in 1994, 214 Hispanic, African-American, Native American and Pacific Islander students received baccalaureate degrees at state schools, and the number is now around 720,” Mitchell said. “And Oklahoma now produces approximately one-third of all Native Americans graduating nationwide each year with four-year degrees in science, math, engineering and technology fields.”

Mitchell has also had an impact on the supply of exceptional student prospects at colleges and universities in the state.

“I knew Frank Harbin, a state legislator from McAlester, from my time on the state Merit Protection Commission, and Dan Draper, who was Speaker of the House, was my neighbor here in Stillwater,” Mitchell said. “I also visited Penny Williams, the state representative from Tulsa, and Sen. Bernice Shedrick here in Stillwater, and it just solidified something they’d been thinking about.”

“They [Williams and Shedrick] took the ball and ran with it and authored the bill that established the Oklahoma School of Science and Math,” he said.

According to Shedrick, an attorney in Stillwater, Mitchell brought to the endeavor his unparalleled ability to inspire others with ideas.

“Dr. Mitchell approached Sen. Williams and me with this vision of creating a math and science high school for the state of Oklahoma,” Shedrick said. “It’s one thing to put your ideas out there, and it’s another to bring people along with you, but he brought his expertise to the table with detailed research showing us how this type of specialized instruction would be a major investment in the young people of our state.

“Today, OSOM sets the standard nationwide with its comprehensive education and ranks among the top in the nation in students’ scores on college entrance exams,” she said.

The Oklahoma Higher Education Hall of Fame Induction is perhaps the ultimate accolade for OSU’s first tenured African-American faculty member. And although he speaks of retiring in the not too distant future to spend more time with his wife, Bernice, and their children and grandchildren, Mitchell will not be relenting in his quiet efforts behind the scenes.

A noted civil rights proponent, Mitchell is also active in the United Methodist Church as well as the Democratic Party, including serving as a delegate to the National Convention last year.

“The world would work a lot better if no one was concerned about who gets credit,” Mitchell said. “My attitude has always been about getting the right people together to get things done.

“When we’re not worried about who gets credit, people can do a lot.”

OSU economist among hall of fame inductees
By Jim Mitchell

When it comes to straight talk about Oklahoma's economy, colleagues and reporters alike have rave reviews for Dr. Larkin Warner, economist and Regents professor emeritus at Oklahoma State University. They say it comes as no surprise that Warner is among those who were inducted into the Oklahoma Higher Education Hall of Fame October 18^th during ceremonies at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.

One of Warner’s colleagues at OSU, Dr. Jerry Lage calls him a true professional. “Larkin always managed to draw practical insights from economic data that he could share with others and that’s what makes that data so valuable in the first place,” says Lage, who adds that he was struck by Warner’s thoroughness, organization, disciplined thinking and logic.

Warner worked for OSU for 33 years and his economic-savvy brought a lot of attention to the university. He is mainly noted for his research that emphasized practical issues in public finance, education and transportation in Oklahoma.

“Larkin has been a tremendous asset to the state when it comes to our policy on expenditures. He worked on a project with the Kerr Foundation for years that actually tracked state expenditures and their functions and services. He knows how to interpret his findings and convert them into budgetary policy recommendations that can help the state develop over the long-term,” says Lage.

Former KOSU news reporter Paul Sund, who now serves as Governor Brad Henry’s communications director, says he remembers well his many interviews with Warner. “I knew I could trust Larkin as someone who could explain Oklahoma’s economic situation in a way that all of us could understand. It was a pure pleasure to be assigned to talk to him.” 

As good as he is as an economist and communicator, ask Warner himself about the task he has prized most over the years and his answer might surprise you: “I have always appreciated access to the Edmon Low Library (OSU). This is truly the university’s major academic asset. I particularly value my recollections of Edmon Low himself. I was chair of the Faculty Council’s Library Committee the last year that Mr. Low was head librarian—sometime in the mid-1960s.”

Warner’s own collection of research is available for use at the library.

As for his hall of fame honor, Warner insists it’s really the result of “being in the right institutional setting with colleagues and administrators who shared my commitment to research and public service for economic development in Oklahoma.”

“It is amazing that three of these individuals, all of whom are retired members of the Department of Economics and Legal Studies in business at OSU, have preceded me as hall of fame honorees—Richard Poole, Richard Leftwich and Robert Sandmeyer.”

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