In 1954, Oklahoma celebrated its forty-seventh year of statehood. One of the youngest states in the nation, its cultural environment and philanthropic leadership were still in the early stages of development. John and Eleanor Kirkpatrick, prominent citizens of Oklahoma City, saw a need and felt compelled to help develop the cultural and civic structures of their hometown.

In spring 1954, John attended a board meeting for National Liberty Bank. Fellow board member V.V. Harris struck up a conversation about personal philanthropy and his own foundation. Kirkpatrick’s interest was apparent, and after the meeting, Harris gave him a copy of the V.V. Harris Foundation’s organizational papers.

“He had enjoyed the good accomplished by his foundation,” Kirkpatrick said of Harris many years later, “and to pass the knowledge of this happiness on to me was, to him, a privilege if not a duty.”

Because of that meeting and the guidance given by Harris, John and Eleanor Kirkpatrick established a private foundation of their own that would serve as a vehicle for personal philanthropic endeavors. On May 17, 1955, the Kirkpatrick Foundation was officially established with an initial contribution of $10,000.

In the fifty-six years since, the Kirkpatrick Foundation has given away more than $59 million in philanthropic funding. The foundation’s purpose, as stated in the original articles of agreement, was the “support of religious, charitable, scientific, literary, or educational undertakings within the United States or any of its possessions.” Its approach to giving was to keep organizational structure simple, to maintain personal involvement with the charities and cultural activities of the community, and to encourage and embrace a large number of charities rather than supporting only a few.

Each generation of the Kirkpatrick family has contributed to and influenced the focus of foundation giving. John Kirkpatrick’s stewardship, guided by a lifelong interest in science, prompted a great number of Oklahoma’s scientific and medical endeavors. Eleanor’s deep love of the arts was the reason for the establishment, encouragement, and growth of many of Oklahoma City’s beloved artistic and cultural institutions. Joan Kirkpatrick, a strong advocate for animal welfare, was responsible for much of the foundation’s contribution to animal research, welfare, and conservation. She also provided the impetus for many Kirkpatrick Foundation arts and education initiatives. Today, third-generation philanthropist Christian Keesee is leading the foundation back to its original principles of meeting the community where its needs are while encouraging fresh ideas and new approaches.

In 1958, the foundation made its first significant grant of $250,000 to the Oklahoma Art Center to build a museum on the state fairgrounds. Eleanor Kirkpatrick, who had been an art center volunteer since the end of World War II, felt strongly that a permanent museum was needed to properly display the center’s collection and to provide a place for aspiring artists to develop their skills.

“We’ve needed this building for so long,” she said. “Oklahoma City has never been eligible to receive any of the great art treasures when collections were broken up because we didn’t have a place to permanently display them.”

The museum opened to the public in December 1958 with an exhibit of 172 paintings, sculptures, and collections from around the world. In the following year, John, Eleanor, and the Kirkpatrick Foundation also established the Oklahoma City Planetarium, Oklahoma Science Workshop, and a museum for art and science within the Oklahoma Art Center building. Believing that a place where art, science, technology, and education could go hand in hand was important, John and Eleanor began work on the Oklahoma Science and Arts Foundation building. It opened across from the Oklahoma Art Center in 1961 with the purpose of providing educational programs for children and adults with a focus on science and the visual arts. This building is currently home to City Arts Center, a visual arts education center and gallery developed by Chris Keesee.

The next few years marked significant foundation development of Oklahoma City’s cultural organizations. In 1963, the Oklahoma Science and Arts Foundation worked with Yvonne Chouteau and her husband, Miguel Terekhov, to establish the Oklahoma City Civic Ballet, known today as the Oklahoma City Ballet. Lyric Theatre, Oklahoma’s only year-round professional musical theatre company, was started in 1963 through the efforts of John and other civic-minded individuals; its operations were partially funded by the Kirkpatrick Foundation.

It was also in 1963 that John began to take a renewed interest in the Oklahoma City Zoo. A founding member of Friends of the Zoo, now known as the Oklahoma Zoological Society, John was a driving force behind the zoo’s development from a small-town menagerie to a world-class zoological park. It was an extensive investment of personal time and energy, combined with significant funding from the Kirkpatrick Foundation, which made this remarkable transformation possible.

“We’re a newcomer to the art world, and we don’t have collections of works of the old masters,” John observed, “but we certainly have the best zoo in the country.”

Today, after years of development and continued support, both the zoo and art museum are nationally recognized Oklahoma City institutions.

The year 1965 marked the large gift from the Kirkpatrick Foundation of $400,000 to the Oklahoma City University School of Music for the construction of a fine arts auditorium. The building, christened the Kirkpatrick Auditorium in September 1967, was part of a major expansion project and provided a long term performing space for Lyric Theatre, Ballet Oklahoma, and a number of other cultural entities.

That year, the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center of Oklahoma City also acquired the famous James Earle Fraser Studio collection, which included the original plaster cast of the noted “End of the Trail” statue. Recognizing that a proper display space was needed, John and Eleanor granted $230,000 of Kirkpatrick Foundation funding toward the construction of the Payne-Kirkpatrick Wing.

The Tax Reform Act of 1969 and its imposed restrictions on private foundations led to a decision by John and Eleanor to create a public community foundation that could meet the charitable needs of individuals, families, companies, and organizations. Later that year, seed money in the amount of $40,000 was given by the Kirkpatrick Foundation to establish the Oklahoma City Community Foundation (OCCF). Since that time, the community foundation has flourished and currently has more than nine hundred funds with assets in excess of $454.8 million. The Kirkpatrick Foundation has granted more than $30 million dollars to the Oklahoma City Community Foundation since its inception.

Another area of focus for the Kirkpatrick Foundation during this time was health care services. Contributions were given to several organizations including the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, the Saint Anthony Hospital Dental Clinic for indigent patients, and the Mercy Hospital Heart and Blood Vessel Center. The foundation also played a major role in helping Mercy Medical Center develop into one of the finest medical centers in the country.

In 1975, the Kirkpatrick family announced its intention to build a new science and arts center near the Oklahoma City Zoo. The impetus for this decision began with a request from Oklahoma City Public Schools officials for hands-on science exhibits for children at the Oklahoma Science and Arts Foundation building. Unfortunately, the building was very crowded and did not have the necessary room to accommodate the request, so John and Eleanor began to research the feasibility of building a new, state-of-the-art science museum in Oklahoma City by visiting science museums around the United States.

Based on what he had seen at other museums, John began the design process for Oklahoma City’s facility. He knew that it needed to be large enough to house hands-on exhibits, paintings, artifacts, and other non-profit museums and had received advice that the building should have very few walls in order to have the ability to expand or contract exhibits. Taking this into account, he created a plan that was by far the largest of Kirkpatrick Foundation building projects to date. Funds from the Kirkpatrick Foundation, the Oklahoma City Community Foundation, and personal family giving provided $3,656,603 toward the relocation of the Oklahoma Science and Arts Foundation from the fairgrounds to near the zoo.

On February 13, 1978, the Kirkpatrick Center opened to the public. Initially, its offerings were fairly minimal, but its potential as a museum complex was substantial. The Science and Arts Foundation changed its name to Omniplex and the planetarium moved to its new location. In less than ten years, the Kirkpatrick Center grew until it was a home for more than 250 hands-on exhibits, the Kirkpatrick Planetarium, the Air Space Museum, the Center of the American Indian (Red Earth), the International Photography Hall of Fame, galleries, greenhouses, gardens, and the Green Arcade. The vision of the Kirkpatrick family, the Kirkpatrick Foundation, and the Oklahoma City Community Foundation had become a reality.

“I see a small child stare at an exhibit from a safe distance, then move a little closer and finally attack it. The curiosity, thought, initiative, and action process is wonderful,” John said of watching children explore and discover the center’s exhibits.

In 1987, Marilyn Bemis Myers joined the foundation as its first executive director. Prior to doing so, Ms. Myers served as director of the Arts Council of Oklahoma City and was a driving force behind the city’s first Festival of the Arts. She also served as director of the Oklahoma Art Center. During her time with the Kirkpatrick Foundation, Ms. Myers was an advocate for the community’s elderly population, helping with eldercare programming at the Mayfair Center. She also felt that learning opportunities for children were important, and she spent many hours ensuring the stabilization of nonprofit organizations including the Kirkpatrick Center, City Arts Center, Oklahoma Children’s Theatre, and Harm Homestead. She built a solid foundation of community relationships, fiscal accountability, and administration for the Kirkpatrick Foundation.

In 1994, the Kirkpatrick Foundation granted $22 million in funding for the Kirkpatrick Family Fund, an affiliated fund of the Oklahoma City Community Foundation started in 1989. Marilyn Myers became the executive director of the family fund, and Susan McCalmont assumed the role of executive director at the Kirkpatrick Foundation. Three years later, when Oklahoma City and the Kirkpatrick family lost Eleanor Blake Kirkpatrick, a woman who had supported and influenced almost every major cultural organization in Oklahoma City, the Kirkpatrick Family Fund became the recipient of her estate.

In the 1990s, discussions began regarding a new building for the city’s art museum collection. Since the Oklahoma City Art Museum had been built in 1958, the collection had expanded substantially and had outgrown its current facility. The Kirkpatrick Foundation funded a feasibility study to examine the pros and cons of moving the museum from the fairgrounds to downtown. Although John felt that the original building was still suitable, his daughter, Joan Kirkpatrick, convinced him that the collection needed a new home. In 2002, the Oklahoma City Museum of Art opened to the public in a new, 110,000 square-foot facility downtown. The Kirkpatrick Foundation provided funding for the conservation, documentation, and upgrade of the collection, in addition to helping establish the positions of Development Officer, Film Curator, and Chief Curator.

Joan also directed the Kirkpatrick Foundation to broaden its giving to include arts education and animal welfare. She was instrumental in equipping the Oklahoma City Zoo hospital with state-of-the art equipment and establishing a zoo accredited veterinary residence program. In 1995, Joan and her father visited the Oklahoma State University Center for Veterinary Health Sciences (OSU CVHS) to see if the foundation could help further the college’s mission. This visit, and subsequent visits made by Joan, led to the purchase of equipment and enhancement of teaching spaces that helped CVHS become one of the nation’s most advanced teaching and research facilities.

Under Joan’s guidance, the foundation also created a directory of all public and private animal shelters in Oklahoma and encouraged the development of No More Homeless Pets, a coalition of public and private animal welfare organizations in central Oklahoma.

Because Oklahoma was so young culturally during the early years of the Kirkpatrick Foundation, much of the foundation’s efforts had to be devoted to the creation, establishment, and nourishment of cultural entities. As these organizations grew and became self-sustaining, Susan McCalmont, the foundation’s second executive director, saw a need for development of educational programming. In 1998, the Kirkpatrick Foundation approached the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority (OETA) with an idea that could improve the perceived value of the arts in Oklahoma. From this discussion developed the idea for the program – Oklahoma Arts Alive! – and funding was provided by the foundation to cover the costs of planning and development. Oklahoma audiences fell in love with the new programming, and it eventually became Oklahoma’s premier arts and culture series, Gallery.

During this time the Kirkpatrick Foundation also initiated and facilitated conversations between Oklahoma educators. These meetings and the ideas they generated resulted in the formation of several arts and education programs including Oklahoma A+ Schools and the DaVinci Institute. In 2005, the Kirkpatrick Foundation launched the Oklahoma Creativity Project, which later became Creative Oklahoma, hosting the 2011 Creative World Forum in Oklahoma City.

Today, executive director Louisa McCune-Elmore is working to bring the foundation “back to basics,” focusing on support of central Oklahoma’s nonprofit organizations. Together with chairman Christian Keesee, the foundation’s board of directors, and staff, she looks forward to exploring and defining the next phase of growth.

“It’s safe to say that the future of the Kirkpatrick Foundation will be defined by our historical values but with an eye for fresh ideas and new approaches,” says McCune-Elmore. “We’re seeing a generational shift in leadership at the foundation and in the city. It’s an evolving, exciting time, and Chris and I look forward to our Kirkpatrick Foundation stewardship.”

The Kirkpatrick Foundation has long stood as a community partner and major philanthropic backer of Oklahoma City’s cultural, artistic, and educational institutions. Moving forward, it will continue to strengthen and support the institutions that make Oklahoma City a great place to live and work.