The honorable Rodger Randle will be our presenter for this month’s meeting. In this talk we will seek to learn more about contemporary Oklahoma by looking at how our past formed who we are today. We will review how Tulsa became so different from the rest of Oklahoma and examine factors in our city’s past that contributed to our cultural formation. We will conclude by identifying changes occurring in Tulsa now and how these changes are already shaping our future.
We will have an optional lunch offered for $10.
Menu: eggplant parmesan sandwich with a potato soup.
Registration and lunch purchase is required in advance, by December 5.
NATIVE TULSAN. A native Tulsan whose maternal family came to Oklahoma in the Land Run of 1889, Rodger Randle is a graduate of Tulsa Public Schools and the University of Oklahoma and he holds a doctor of laws degree from the University of Tulsa.
FROM PEACE CORPS TO THE STATE CAPITOL. Prof. Randle began his career in public service with the Peace Corps in Brazil in the mid 1960’s. In 1970, at the age of 27, he was elected to the Oklahoma House of Representatives. He was elected to the Oklahoma Senate in 1972, then reelected in 1976, 1980 and 1984. Mr. Randle was twice elected President Pro Tempore of the State Senate (which is the Senate’s top leadership position).
MAYOR OF TULSA. In 1988, he became Mayor of the City of Tulsa and led the successful campaign to change the city’s form of government. The resounding “yes” vote came after four unsuccessful charter change attempts during the previous 35 years. He was reelected in 1990 by the largest margin in Tulsa’s history, becoming Tulsa’s first mayor under the new MayorCity Council form of government. The adoption of the new form of government marked the most significant change in the City of Tulsa in the last 50 years.
CIVIC ACTIVITIES AT THE CITY, STATE, NATIONAL, AND INTERNATIONAL LEVELS.
On the national level, he is the past President and Chairman of the national Board of Directors of Sister Cities International, which is the world’s largest volunteer citizen diplomacy program. He continues to serve in different roles supporting Sister Cities International. At the state level, he also serves as a member of several boards of directors, including the Governor’s International Economic Development Team. In Tulsa he is a past President of the Tulsa Global Alliance (the organization that operates Tulsa’s Sister City program and the International Visitors Programs, among other activities), and he is a past chairman of the Tulsa Committee on Foreign Relations and is a past president of the United Nations Association of Northeastern Oklahoma.At the local level he has served as Chair of the Tulsa Performing Arts Center Trust, among many other community activities in which he is involved. In addition to lecturing in the United States, Randle has lectured abroad in the United Kingdom, Japan, Indonesia, Mexico, China, Vietnam, Brazil, Spain, Germany, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Mozambique, and the Philippines.
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