Drummond honored by OSU

STILLWATER — Outstanding professional achievements and lifelong contributions to society were noted last week as Frederick Ford Drummond received the highest honor given to an Oklahoma State University alumnus.

The patriarch of a venerable Osage County ranching empire, Drummond was inducted into the OSU Hall of Fame Friday night during a ceremony at the ConocoPhillips OSU Alumni Center in Stillwater. Drummond and his late father, Frederick G. Drummond, became the first-ever father and son to have been bestowed the special honor.

The other OSU Hall honorees in the Class of 2015 were Tulsa businessman Bryan Close and Enid trucking company executive John D. Groendyke. Ramona Paul, an educator from Edmond, was inducted posthumously.

Upon earning a bachelor’s degree in animal science, Drummond graduated from Oklahoma A&M College in 1953. Today, more than 60 years later, he continues to handle the operations for the Fred G. Drummond Family Ranches — which include vast amounts of acreage around Hominy and Pawhuska, where a Drummond­-family homestead has existed since the 1860s.

In addition to his ranching and farming interests, Drummond is an independent oil producer with a knowledge of the area’s economy and other financial matters that is unparalleled.

Drummond completed a three-year stint in the United States Artillery in 1955 and earned an MBA from Stanford University in 1957. That same year, he accepted a position as the assistant vice president for United Missouri Bank of Kansas City. He went on to compile a 50-year tenure as the chairman and principal owner of Cleveland Bank in Pawnee County. Plus, he was a board member of the Ponca City Federal Land Bank for 37 years.

Over the years, Drummond served as the president of numerous regional boards, including the Osage County Cattlemen’s Association, Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association, the NCBA tax committee, Pawhuska Rotary Club, the Pawhuska Hospital Board of Incorporators, Pawhuska Library Board, the Oklahoma chapter of the Nature Conservancy and the Grand River Dam Authority.

He also has been a board member of the Bluestem Medical Foundation, the Osage County Historical Museum Board, the Oklahoma Historical Society and the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa. Other Drummond memberships include the Texas Cattle Raisers Association and the Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, First Presbyterian Church, Pawhuska Chamber of Commerce and the Boy Scout Council of the Cherokee Area. In 1995, he was awarded the Charles and David Koch Award for Better Government in Oklahoma by the Academy for State Government.

Drummond previously was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame (2004) and he was a 2006 inductee in the Hall of Great Westerners. More recently, Drummond was named Oklahoma Cattleman of the Year for 2014.

During his time as an Oklahoma A&M student, Drummond was a member of Phi Eta Sigma, Blue Key Honor Society, Beta Theta Pi Fraternity, Phi Kappa Sigma, Alpha Zeta Agricultural Student Honor Society and the campus ROTC. He also earned honors as a Top 10 graduate of the Oklahoma State-predecessor institution.

Drummond is a life member of the OSU Alumni Association and served as board chairman of the organization in 1969. Oklahoma State’s Drummond Residence Hall is named after his father, Frederick Gentner Drummond, who served as OSU Alumni Association president in 1923.

Frederick F. Drummond and his wife, Janet, are the longest consecutive annual donors in OSU’s history and have impacted approximately 40 areas on campus. Alumni Association president, in 1923. The Drummonds have four children ­­ Diana Cummins, Ann Harper, Ford Drummond and Jane Stiehl, ­­ as well as nine grandchildren.