Tulsa Hall of Fame recognizes regional visionaries known for weaving the fabric of our city with threads of philanthropy, public service, community resource management and much more.
This year, seven trailblazing Tulsans will be inducted in the 37th annual Tulsa Hall of Fame ceremony on Oct. 2 at Southern Hills Country Club, an event benefiting the Tulsa Historical Society and Museum.
TulsaPeople got a chance to meet the inductees ahead of the celebration.
Alison Anthony
Anthony, president and CEO of Tulsa Area United Way, kicked off a career focused on community and connectivity at age 16 working as a Camp Fire counselor in Enid, Oklahoma. As she gained education and experience in human relations, communications, community relations and academic services, Anthony honed her skills and landed at Tulsa Area United Way after a successful career at Williams.
“When I saw that the mission is ‘uniting people and resources to improve lives and strengthen communities,’ I (was) like, that’s what I do. That’s who I am,” she says.
With more than 40 years of experience bringing people together, Anthony sees that interconnectivity as a superpower. “In Tulsa, we have learned that we get work done through relationships and working together, finding ways to collaborate across generations, interests, passions,” she says. “Can I be a connector in chief? Can I help connect people to get work done?” she asks.
And with TAUW, that’s exactly the work she does. For local movers and shakers like Anthony and her fellow inductees, the work is never done. “We don’t just stop because we’ve made progress.”
Yolanda and Harold Charney
Yolandaand Haroldmoved to Owasso in 1956 where they raised three children and enjoyed 60 years of marriage until Harold’s death in 2016. Harold’s robust law career included work with Tulsa County Legal Aid, serving clients from varied backgrounds. That experience set Harold on a career path of providing underserved populations with pro-bono services. He also helped incorporate churches that came to him for his services pro-bono.
Both children of immigrants to the U.S., the Charneys have long been invested in their community. In addition to her 20 years as director of communications for the Jewish Federation of Tulsa, Yolanda co-founded the Martin Luther King Society Inc., Say No To Hate Coalition, Hispanic American Foundation and Tulsa Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, among her many other projects and board seats.
Equitable education has been a passion for the Charneys. Harold was a board member for 36 years and its inaugural president for Tulsa County Vo-Tech, now known as Tulsa Technology Center. Yolanda, original convener for the Tulsa Public Schools Hispanic Education Task Force has served on various education committees and is happy to see the seeds she planted continue to grow. One thing that makes her happy? “Just the fact that the Hispanic American Foundation is still raising funds for scholarships and helping kids,” she says.
Yolanda and Harold have been invested in the arts as well. Harold served as president of the Oklahoma Professional Theatre Foundation and spoke annually at the Tulsa City-County Library’s “Harold Charney Poetry Festival for Children.”
Sarah and John Graves
Sarahand Johnwere married in 1981 at Harwelden Mansion and have made it a tradition to return with champagne and wedding photos and talk about memories from previous years. Their celebration of love includes all that partnership has brought them, including their involved careers bolstering community services.
Sarah has been involved with Family and Children’s Services since 1978 as a client, volunteer, staff member and a board member for eight years. The FCS Sarah and John Graves Center at 23rd Street and Harvard Avenue is named in their honor.
After two years as a Tulsa Police Department patrol officer, John pivoted to oil and gas and hit a pocket of ingenuity. He was granted seven U.S. patents in the ’80s and ’90s. He and Sarah built a valve company from the ground up, and today Cyclonic Valve Co.’s plant in Broken Arrow manufactures and distributes thousands of high-pressure control valves to oil and gas companies throughout the country and internationally.
In 2017, the couple founded Shining Honor Project, which connects adults with developmental challenges to employment opportunities that honor deceased veterans by cleaning headstones. John says he was inspired to launch the organization in part by the sacrifices people drafted to war had to make — an experience he escaped. “My (draft) number was 365, so there was no way — I mean, Richard Nixon would have been drafted before I would have been with No. 365,” John says. “This is our way for us to help pay back or recognize the sacrifices that all those people — my age, and above and behind — who did serve.”
Teresa Knox
Knoxlaunched her first business after working as a dental assistant for seven years. She launched Oklahoma Technical College nearly 30 years ago and is founder and former CEO of Community Care College and Clary Sage College.
Thousands of graduates have filled critical occupations and workforce needs, contributing billions to Oklahoma’s economy, she says, and her role with Community Care College is one that stands out among her dynamic history. “For nearly three decades, we’ve had an opportunity to change thousands of lives by affording an education that not only fulfills a critical role in Oklahoma’s workforce but makes an impactful difference in the lives of the graduates and the family members they care for,” she says.
In addition to education and career readiness, and her ownership of Harwelden Mansion, Knox has been instrumental in bolstering Tulsa’s art scene with the renovation of Church Studio. “I never thought of my home city as a tourist destination, but I’m so blown away by the numbers,” she says. “I love how visitors are interested in what we have to offer while learning about our fascinating past.”
She has goals to formalize the area around Church Studio as an official district, now dubbed Studio Row.
Sanjay Meshri
Meshrihas made his mark in the business and philanthropy sectors, in part, by leading the business his father, Dayal, founded in 1987 — Advance Research Chemicals Inc. The specialty fluorine chemicals manufacturer with four manufacturing sites in Catoosa synthesizes over 300 custom compounds for markets such as pharmaceuticals, energy, automotive markets, coatings, research applications and more. Sanjay led the company for 29 years before his 2021 retirement.
In addition to his business, Sanjay has held various positions on local boards like Tulsa Community Foundation, Oklahoma Center for Community and Justice, Saint Francis Health System and many more organizations. That community work is what stands out to him most over his career, he says, specifically “being on past boards such as Saint Francis and working with others like the late Michael Johnson on OCCJ, anti-bullying laws, Tulsa Community Foundation, anything to support Tulsa and the community — and recently working with friends to try and get another major golf championship for our community to impact the local economy.”
Sanjay recently began an Executive Education professional development program through Harvard University. What’s next? “Working with a committee to help grow our community around values, morals and helping make a major economic impact by attracting organizations to have divisions here and their signature events in our town,” he says.
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