Class Notes

Michael Westbrock (MBA, 1998) has been named Chairman of the GRDA Assets Committee for the Grand River Dam Authority Board of Directors by Oklahoma Gov. Stitt.

Andrew Coffey (BBA, Finance, 2002) has been promoted to Senior Vice President of Arvest Bank in Tulsa.
 

Matt Lenora (BBA, Entrepreneurship & Venture Management, 2006) has been elected a Shareholder of law firm Robinson Bradshaw.

Isaac Helmerich (J.D., 2012; MBA, 2012) has been elected a Shareholder in the Tulsa office of Hall Estill, Oklahoma’s leading law firm.

MIT Sloan Management Review posted an article co-authored by Mark Bolino, Anthony Klotz (Ph.D., Business Administration, 2013), and their colleague Ghufran Ahmad.

Haley Grissom (BBA, Supply Chain Management, 2014) has joined Caldwell Cassady & Curry as an associate attorney in Dallas.

Christine Robbins (BBA, Accounting, 2016) has been promoted to Manager, Assurance, at the Oklahoma City branch of HoganTaylor.

Brian Maddy (MBA, May 2021) has been named the plan president of Molina Healthcare of Oklahoma.

Former U.S. District Judge Thomas R. Brett (BBA, Finance, 1953; Juris Doctorate, 1957) has passed away at the age of 89. Born and raised in Oklahoma City, he was a third-generation attorney and judge. Following his graduation from the OU College of Law, he served as a Tulsa County prosecutor and a trial attorney for two firms before his judicial appointment by President Jimmy Carter in 1979. Brett served as a judge for the Tulsa-based Northern District court for 24 years. He was chief judge from 1994 until his semi-retirement in 1996, at which time he assumed senior status until retiring fully in 2003. A retired colonel with the U.S. Army Reserve Judge Advocate General Corps, Brett was a past president of the Tulsa County and Oklahoma bar associations. He was a former member of the University of Oklahoma Board of Regents and a former trustee of both the Oklahoma Bar Foundation and the Mabee Foundation.

William “Bill” Joseph Rea, Jr. (BBA, Marketing, 1952) has passed away. Rea grew up in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and started a lifelong involvement with the Boy Scouts in Troop 7, where he earned the rank of Eagle Scout and was selected to the Order of the Arrow. After graduating with honors from OU, he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the United States Army Quartermaster Corps. He was subsequently stationed at Ft. Lee, Ft. Gordon and Ft. Hood. In 1955, he left active duty and moved to Tulsa to join Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Beane, where he began a lifelong passion with the financial services industry. At Merrill Lynch, Rea was known as an exceptionally talented investment advisor who always put his clients’ interests first. He officially retired from Merrill Lynch on January 9, 1998, after 43 years.

Lee B. Thompson, Jr. (BBA, Management, 1954) has passed away. He grew up in Oklahoma City, a 1949 graduate of the original Classen High School. Upon graduation from OU, Thompson was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the Air Force and served two years active duty. Following initial employment in the oil industry, he became a New York Life Insurance agent in Enid, Oklahoma, where he enjoyed a successful career as a Chartered Life Underwriter. He was a member of the Million Dollar Round Table each of 48 years, reaching its highest-ranking levels of Top of the Table and Court of the Table. He was New York Life’s Oklahoma City General Office’s Agent of the Year eight times. His love of OU sports and friendship with broadcaster Bob Barry, Sr., eventually earned him the role of producer and director of the Sooner Football Network broadcasts.

Earnest James (“Jimmy”) Carpenter (BBA, Petroleum Land Management, 1962) has passed away. He was born and raised in Abilene, Texas, and played on football teams that won 49 consecutive games and three straight state titles, 1954-56. He also was a three-time all-state baseball player for the Abilene teams that won the state championships in 1955 and 1956. At OU, he lettered three times in football and twice in baseball. He was inducted into the Texas Football Hall of Fame in 2000 and the Big Country Hall of Fame in 2013. After graduating from OU, he was employed as a land man with Pan American Petroleum company in Billings, Montana. His jobs in the oil field moved him all over the United States, but he settled down in Edmond, Oklahoma, to work for Walter Duncan and, after two years, he established his own land management and consulting company.

Eliot Feiler (BBA, Marketing, 1977) has passed away at the age of 64. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, he moved to Norman at the age of 17 to attend the University of Oklahoma. Feiler went on to pursue a rewarding career in law and was a founding member of the Oklahoma City Commercial Law Attorneys Association. When he wasn’t cheering on OU football, trying out a new ice cream recipe or telling bad “dad” jokes, he was very active in philanthropy. He earned a life member achievement for his long-standing membership and work with Kiwanis Club.