KIRKPATRICK MEDAL
Honoring Outstanding Contributions
For seven decades, the Kirkpatrick Foundation has used grant funding to transform the cultural landscape of central Oklahoma and beyond. In 2024, Kirkpatrick Foundation awarded the inaugural Kirkpatrick Medal to people in the Oklahoma community who represent the six areas of focus of the foundation– arts, culture, education, animal wellbeing, environmental conservation, and historic preservation. This award is inspired by co-founder Eleanor Kirkpatrick and her daughter Joan Kirkpatrick and is an expansion of the Kirkpatrick Honor for Animal Wellbeing.
A committee of foundation trustees, community members, and foundation staff winnowed down an impressive list of nominees to this group that have demonstrated a lifetime of dedication to the mission areas. Each awardee received a $2500 honorarium, a medal design by sculptor Eugene Daub, a citation, and a $50,000 endowment gift at the Oklahoma City Community Foundation to the nonprofit of their choice. The group was celebrated at a dinner on Monday, November 25, at Oklahoma Contemporary Art Center in Oklahoma City.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Eugene Daub is an American contemporary figure sculptor, best known for his portraits and figurative monument sculpture created in the classic heroic style. His sculptures reside in three of the nation's state capitals and in the National Statuary Hall in the United States Capitol. His work appears in public monuments and permanent collections in the United States and Europe. Daub worked on creating the medals of Joan and Eleanor throughout 2024.
PRESENTING THE INAUGURAL KIRKPATRICK MEDAL CLASS OF 2024
ANIMAL WELLBEING
Harvey Payne | Wildlife Photographer
Images by wildlife and nature photographer Harvey Payne have appeared in hundreds of newspapers, magazines, books, and calendars including The New York Times, National Geographic, America on My Mind, and the Audubon Society. Currently the community relations coordinator for the Nature Conservancy’s Joseph H. Williams Tall Grass Prairie Preserve, Payne is a retired attorney and municipal judge for Pawhuska, Hominy, and Barnsdall, Oklahoma. Payne was crucial in the development of the Nature Conservancy's Joseph H. Williams Tall Grass Preserve in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, where he served eighteen years as director.
ARTS
Nan Sheets (Posthumously) | Painter Printmaker Museum Director Creator of Oklahoma City Art Community
The Oklahoma City arts community might look different today had it not been for the late Nannine Jane “Nan” Quick Sheets. Artist, arts advocate, teacher, and museum director and a pharmacist by education, Nan began taking art classes at the Broadmoor Academy of Fine Arts in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Her Oklahoma City home, “the Elms” was a salon for visiting artists and later converted to a commercial art gallery, which today is JRB Art at the Elms in the Paseo Arts District. Sheets served as director of the Oklahoma Art Center of the Works Progress Administration which she later turned into a museum.
CULTURE
Governor Bill Anoatubby | Chickasaw Nation
Under his leadership at the Chickasaw Nation, Bill Anoatubby has worked to not only preserve but also share Chickasaw culture, heritage, and language through artistic programs, learning opportunities, and a world-renowned cultural center in Sulphur. As governor, Bill has overseen the creation of businesses such as gaming, hospitality, tourism, banking, manufacturing, and chocolate. Income from the industries funds Chickasaws programs that address aging, education, health care, and housing. Today, the Nation employs nearly 14,000 people and the Chickasaw Foundation funds dozens of Oklahoma nonprofit organizations.
EDUCATION
Angela McKenna | Music Educator
Vocal music teacher Angela McKenna has devoted more than twenty years to helping her young students find their voices. Currently the choral director at Classen School of Advanced Studies in northeast Oklahoma City, McKenna has placed more than two hundred students in All-Region and All-State Choirs and she directs more than one hundred students at tbe Studio J Performing Arts Center in Edmond. She holds degrees in music education and educational leadership from the University of Central Oklahoma, as well as National Board Certification in education.
ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION
Ed Brocksmith | Co-Founder, Save the Illinois River
Ed Brocksmith co-founded Save the Illinois River (STIR) in the early 1980s to protect the Flint Creek, Barren Fork Creek, and Tenkiller Lake, as well as their tributaries. STIR was created in response to a permit that allowed the discharge of treated sewage into the Illinois River watershed by neighboring Fayetteville, Arkansas. This action led to a United States Supreme Court decision in 1992, Oklahoma v. EPA, that set in motion water quality rules to protect Oklahoma rivers from interstate water pollution. STIR members monitor water quality issues and follow the Oklahoma Legislature, Oklahoma Scenic Rivers Commission, and other federal agencies.
HISTORIC PRESERVATION
Melvena Heisch | Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer, State Historic Preservation Office (Retired)
As Oklahoma deputy state historic preservation officer, Melvena Heisch drafted legislation that created the state's historic rehabilitation tax credit and led to the resurrection of the Skirvin Hotel, the majestic anchor of Broadway and Park avenues in downtown Oklahoma City. Heisch and her team at the State Historic Preservation Office oversaw programs ranging from assisting local governments with rehabilitation tax credits to working with the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture to recognize families who have farmed or ranched for at least 100 years.
