tural education degree when he was killed in the accident. "Their wish was to carry on the names of Larry and Jim Ice and to memorialize them in some manner at Oklahoma State University, and they wanted to support the OSU Spirit Rider Team," said Milford Jenkins, senior director of development for the OSU Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources and the OSU Foundation. "My boys were not the top students, but they were hard-working, funlov ing, caring people," Nadyne said, as a tear rolled down her cheek. "We wanted to honor someone who is like that." Nadyne said she and Donald decided to support the OSU Spirit Rider Team because the Ice boys were interested in horses and because team members had no financial support and worked in their spare time. Three years after the boys were killed, Donald died of a cancerous brain tumor he fought for a little more than six months.
Romance Nadyne said she decided she could manage the farm alone if she sold some big machinery and grazed her crops with cattle, and she was in the bank depositing money when Merrill Burruss came into her life. Merrill said he was at the Geary bank in early 1992 because his company had just purchased it. He traveled from his office in Kingfisher, Okla., to meet with the Geary branch manager. Merrill said while he was there, the branch manager took him to meet a customer - Nadyne Ice. "I didn't know Nadyne or any of the Ice family, but I knew she was the lady who had lost two sons," Merrill said. "I didn't know she had lost her husband." She was busy and left quickly. But Merrill said the branch manager took him back to her office and began to tell 32 •:> FALL 2003 •!+ COWBOY JOURNAL
him about Nadyne's mother, her sister and other family members and finished the conversation by talking about how beautiful Nadyne was. "Nadyne did not know me or that my wife had died," Merrill said." And the next time I ran into her she tried to sell me something for my wife." About a month after that meeting, Nadyne said she had a challenging business situation she did not know how to deal with and called Merrill hoping that he could help. Merrill said he met Nadyne at her house and they drove together to the farm site she wanted him to look at, but the ground was so wet they could not get off the road. "We drove back to her house, and about half way, I said 'Can I call you up and take you out to eat some time?', but my question surprised her I think," Merrill said. He said she hesitated, but he asked again and they set their first date. "I didn't intend to marry the first time, and God had been so good, I certainly didn't intend to push my luck," Nadyne said. Merrill and Nadyne married Jan. 1, 1994, a little less than two years after the first time they met. "God took care of me in two different ways," Nadyne said. "Not only did he give me a wonderful husband in Merrill, but he also gave me two sons who had lost their mother."
Hard work pays Ironically, before Merrill and Nadyne met, Merrill had also provided scholarship support for students in the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at OSU. Merrill and Nadyne said they have a unique idea about who should receive their scholarships. "There are scholarships for those who do make straight A's, and there are scholarships for those who need
assistance, but many times the middle person is left out of scholarship plans," Nadyne said. Merrill said a number of students work their way through school and manage to get decent grades and he feels like those are the people who do the majority of the work in the country and pay the majority of the taxes. "It's not that we don't feel other people can't come out and be the backbone of the nation, but we know this is proven," Nadyne said. "They have to work for everything they get." Jason Wright, OSU Spirit Rider for the 2002-2003 school year, is one of those people who worked his way through school. In addition to serving as the Spirit Rider, he worked 20 to 30 hours at the OSU horse farm. "I worked to pay my bills and a large part of my tuition," said the 2003 animal science alumnus. "If it wasn't for my job, I couldn' t have stayed in school at OSU." The Elmore City native said he has worked on the farm for a long time building fence and hauling hay. A recipient of the Larry and Jim Ice Memorial Scholarship, he said he dreamed of being the Spirit Rider as a small child when he watched Bullet run onto the field. Jason Wright said he worked on the Spirit Rider Team ground crew for a year before beco ming the Spirit Rider. "It gave me a sense of pride in the university, the athletic department and the team," he said. "I actually felt like I was part of everything that was going on."
A nurturing impact Members of the Spirit Rider Team are not the only ones who have felt the giving nature of the Burruss family. When Merrill retired from his position as bank president in 1996, he endowed two scholarships in academic depart-