Before students could come to his school, James Herbert Kelly had to go looking for them—in a buggy across the Oklahoma countryside. In this episode of Red Dirt and Round Bales, Dave Deken shares the beginnings of Northern Oklahoma College, the funding veto that closed its doors in 1917, and the reopening that gave the school another chance. As a proud NOC graduate, Dave connects that history with a question rural families still face: How do you help the next generation find opportunity a little closer to home?
Before Northern Oklahoma College welcomed its first students, its president traveled the countryside by buggy to recruit them. Fifteen years after classes began, a funding veto closed the school—and its future was anything but certain.
Dave Deken, a proud Northern Oklahoma College graduate, tells the story of the Tonkawa institution’s beginnings, its two-year closure, and the reopening that gave another generation a chance. It’s a story about education in rural Oklahoma and the familiar questions families ask when a young person is ready for the next step: What will it cost? How far away is it? Where could it lead?
In this episode:
• Why James Herbert Kelly went looking for students in the summer of 1902.
• How a school founded to prepare students for university also offered practical business training.
• What happened when Governor Robert L. Williams vetoed the school’s funding in 1917.
• How the 1919 reopening and addition of college-level courses helped shape its future.
• Why an educational opportunity closer to home can matter to a rural family.
What you will hear in the episode:
00:00:00 — Welcome and a Buggy Ride into History
00:00:21 — James Herbert Kelly Goes Looking for Students
00:00:41 — Rural Families and the Need for Education
00:01:33 — Northern’s Founding, Closure, Reopening, and Growth
00:04:21 — Preparing Students for a University
00:04:26 — Learning Skills for a Career
00:04:31 — Opportunity Closer to Home
00:04:38 — Remembering Both Times the Doors Opened
00:04:56 — Where to Learn More
00:05:04 — Dave’s Connection to Northern and Closing