IN MEMORY Gordon Wilson Allison
B.C. Clark Jr.
D EC . 30 , 1 926 – F E B. 5, 20 15
AP RIL 4, 19 13 – F E B. 4, 20 15
Gordon Wilson Allison, 88, of Oklahoma City, passed away Feb. 5 in the hospital, surrounded by his family. He was a loving husband, father and grandfather, known to his grandchildren as “Daddy G.” He was born Dec. 30, 1926, to W.L. and Ida Ward Allison in Scott, Ark. Gordon was a long-time Oklahoma City University trustee and an early member of the executive board Gordon Allison of the School of Religion. The Allison family endowed a classroom in the Bishop W. Angie Smith Chapel. Gordon graduated from Morris High School in England, Ark., as class president in 1944. He then served in World War II in the Merchant Marines on a T-2 Tanker sailing the Atlantic, Mediterranean, Red Sea, and Persian Gulf transporting oil and gas to Europe. He was honorably discharged in July 1946. After returning home from the war, Gordon married Margaret Jane Walker and began farming in Arkansas. In 1958, Gordon entered the insurance industry as a producer and worked his way into management. He spent 28 years as a corporate officer of several public companies. In 1972, he moved his family to Oklahoma City and founded American Trustee Life Insurance Co., where he worked as chairman and CEO. Gordon enjoyed many achievements and civic duties, serving as a member of the board of directors of the Oklahoma Independent College Foundation, chairman of the finance committee and board of directors of Village United Methodist Church, member of the board of directors of Mid-Central BanCorp. of Warsaw, Mo., and president of the Association of Oklahoma Life Insurance Companies.
Benton Clyde Clark Jr. passed away peacefully Feb. 4 at the age of 101. He was born April 4, 1913, in Purcell, Okla. He met the love of his life while attending Oklahoma City University and married Ruth Carroll on leap day, Feb. 29, 1936. They were married for 59 years before her death on March 4, 1995. He later married Jeroldine Zachritz, and they enjoyed 11 years B.C. Clark Jr. together until her death on Sept. 14, 2008. Among his many philanthropic and civic endeavors, he established the B.C. Clark Jr. Chair endowment fund at Oklahoma City University’s Meinders School of Business and the B.C. Clark Jr. Endowment at OCU. He most recently served as chairman emeritus of B.C. Clark Inc., a familyowned retail jewelry firm celebrating 123 years in business in Oklahoma. He worked in the family business as a young teenager until his early 90s, making an indelible mark on the success of the business. He served honorably in the Navy as a gunnery officer during World War II. The jewelry business was always his first love, but he also gave back to his community in many ways. Among the many notable honors he received are the Pathmaker Award from the Oklahoma County Historical Society, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Oklahoma Jewelers Association, the Wall of Fame Humanitarian Award from the Oklahoma City Public Schools Foundation , an Honorary Doctorate of Commercial Science from Oklahoma City University, 2007 Alumnus of the Year — Classen High School, and the Silver Beaver Award from the Boy Scouts of America. He was a longtime member of the Fortune Club, Men’s Dinner Club, and the Quail Creek Golf and Country Club. He was a founding member of May Avenue United Methodist Church and a devoted member of Nichols Hills United Methodist Church.
Bunny Briggs FEB. 26, 1 922 – NOV. 1 5, 2 0 14
Bunny Briggs, the elegant and versatile tap virtuoso whose career bridged dance eras, from Bill (Bojangles) Robinson’s to Savion Glover’s, died on Nov. 15 in Las Vegas. He was 92. Bunny earned an honorary doctorate of Performing Arts in American Dance from Oklahoma City University. In the world of tap, which especially prizes the passing of traditions from generation to generation, Bunny Briggs Bunny was a prodigy early on and a mentor in his later years. He danced on the streets of Harlem as a small boy, and on Broadway, “The Ed Sullivan Show” and at the Newport Jazz Festival as an adult. He performed in the 1989 Broadway musical revue “Black and Blue,” and as a jazz percussionist with the likes of Count Basie, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Lionel Hampton and Duke Ellington, who once described Mr. Briggs as “the most superleviathonic, rhythmaturgically syncopated tapsthamaticianisamist.” Bunny was nominated for a Tony Award for his performance in “Black and Blue,” which originated in Paris. The 1989 movie “Tap” featured several generations of tappers, including Bunny, who helped emphasize the legitimacy of tap as an authentic, vernacular American art form and illustrated its torch-passing tradition.
Chariyar Nillpraphan MARC H 4, 1940 – OC T. 3 0 , 20 14
Chariyar “Yaya” Nillpraphan, 74, passed away on Oct. 30, surrounded by family. Chariyar was born March 4, 1940, in Thailand. Chariyar worked 19 years, from 1990 to 2009, at Oklahoma City University’s Dulaney-Browne Library in the Government Documents department. She was a resident of Oklahoma for more than 40 years and a resident of Arlington, Texas, for the past six years.
Marjorie N. Sussex AUG. 3 , 1920 – DEC . 3 1, 20 14
Marjorie N. Sussex, age 94, formerly of Oklahoma, died Dec. 31 in Columbus, Ohio. Marjorie was born August 3, 1920, in Kansas City to Virgil and Tracie (Stanton) Mossman. She was head of and taught in the foreign language department at Oklahoma City University from 1968 to 1998, and she retired in 1998. okcu.edu // 23