About the Founder:

My name is Tom Ragland, oldest child of Herman and Estelle Ragland. I grew up in the small town of Hartshorne in the Southeastern part of Oklahoma where I graduated from high school in 1959. I was not a very good student and outside of my parents’ influence, there were very few role models around. Even if I had been motivated to succeed as a student, it was unlikely that I could have found decent employment in the area, much less establish a career. Although I didn’t realize it at the time, there was one significant gift coming my way that would have an enormous effect on my future and provide a path to a much better life.

Somehow, my parents realized that I needed a college education if I was to avoid struggling all my life just to scrape out a living. Fortunately, they were willing to make the sacrifices required to help me get a degree.

Based solely on their insistence, I enrolled at Eastern Oklahoma State Junior College. By some fluke, I ended up in engineering classes. My expectations were not very high and the first semesters were difficult. Fortunately, I developed study habits that I lacked in high school and began to see better results in my classwork. After two years, I took these improved study habits, better grades than I had ever received in high school, and my associate degree to Oklahoma State University where I completed my engineering degree.

When I graduated, my prospects for the future had changed drastically. I had multiple, high-paying job offers for almost any region of the country I wanted to consider.

I am convinced that if my parents had not insisted I go to college, I would have struggled my whole life just to make a decent living. Instead, I have had a great life. I have had a rewarding career and I have never had to struggle financially. I’ve done things and seen places that I never dreamed of as a young man growing up in Southeastern Oklahoma.

There is no way I could ever repay my parents for the encouragement and support they gave me in my educational pursuit. Instead, I’m trying to create a legacy in their names. I plan to try to do this by providing financial assistance to students who wish to acquire a Science, Technology, Engineering or Math (STEM) degree. It is my hope that this assistance will provide them with the opportunity after graduation to receive a rewarding and well-paying job— a job that doesn’t require four years of experience.  I believe this might allow the students to live a more rewarding life than they otherwise might, just as it did for me.