Chickasaw Nation Governor Bill Anoatubby will deliver the Boswell Lecture at 11:30 a.m. Friday, March 31, at the Chickasaw Business and Conference Center at East Central University. He will share his journey from Tishomingo, to ECU, then as the longest serving governor in the history of the Chickasaw Nation.
Prior to his election as governor in 1987, Anoatubby was active in tribal government, serving as director of tribal health services, director of finance, special assistant to the governor, controller, and he was also the tribe’s first lieutenant governor.
He grew up in Tishomingo and graduated from Tishomingo High School and Murray State College before coming to ECU to pursue an accounting degree.
In 1987, when Anoatubby first took office, the tribe had only 250 employees. Today, the Chickasaw Nation employs more than 14,000 people with more than 100 diversified businesses. Much of the Chickasaw Nation revenue is invested into funding more than 200 programs and services benefitting Chickasaw families, Oklahomans, and their communities. Those services include education, health care, youth, aging, housing, and more, benefitting Chickasaw families, Oklahomans and their communities.
The lecture is free and open to the public. If planning to attend, contact Boswell Endowed Professor of Business Administration Deanna Hartley-Kelso, J.D., at dhartley@ecok.edu or 580-559-5988.
The S.C. Boswell Award is presented to a faculty member in ECU’s Stonecipher School of Business. The award is based on effective classroom teaching, professional development, involvement in student activities and contributions to the department, school and university.
The recipient receives a stipend based on income from the S.C. Boswell Memorial Charitable Trust and sponsors a free, public lecture or forum on topics of interest related to business.
The Boswell Trust was established through the ECU Foundation Inc. in 1975 by Boswell’s daughters, Sara Boswell and Jane Boswell Maher, in order to help attract and hold outstanding faculty members in business.
Boswell was a respected Ada businessman who served on the Board of Regents for Oklahoma Colleges for 18 years. He donated funds for the construction of ECU’s Boswell Memorial Chapel in memory of his wife Kathryn, which was completed in 1957. He helped organize the Ada Industrial Development Corporation and establish Valley View Regional Hospital in 1935. Boswell was president of the hospital’s board of directors for 12 years.