Central High School is the oldest high school in

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa ( ) is the List of municipalities in Oklahoma, second-most-populous city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the List of United States cities by population, 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The po ...

. It was founded in 1906 as Tulsa High School, and located in downtown Tulsa until 1976. The school now has a campus in northwest Tulsa. Tulsa Central is part of the Tulsa Public Schools, Oklahoma's largest school district, and is a public school for students from grades 9 through 12. Since 1997 it has served as a

fine Fine may refer to: Characters * Fran Fine, the title character of ''The Nanny'' * Sylvia Fine (''The Nanny''), Fran's mother on ''The Nanny'' * Officer Fine, a character in ''Tales from the Crypt'', played by Vincent Spano Legal terms * Fine (p ...

and performing arts magnet school.Kris Dudley
"Fame: Central High School Takes on Role as Magnet Site for the Arts"
''

Tulsa World The ''Tulsa World'' is an American daily newspaper. It serves the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and is the primary newspaper for the northeastern and eastern portions of Oklahoma. The printed edition is the second-most circulated newspaper in the sta ...

'', August 20, 1997.

History

The original Tulsa High School was erected in 1906 at Fourth and Boston in downtown Tulsa. In 1913 it became the third school in the state to win accreditation. A new building opened in 1917 at the corner of Sixth and Cincinnati, and was enlarged in 1922. The Manual Arts building at Ninth and Cincinnati was added in 1925.Joyce Saunders, at (retrieved March 24, 2009). Tulsa Central was at one time said to be the second largest high school in the country, and included an indoor pool, an indoor track, an extensive art collection, and a large pipe organ.Kirby Lee Davis
"These Walls: Tulsa's Central High School"
''Oklahoma City Journal-Record'', April 11, 2008 (retrieved March 24, 2009). Central was Tulsa's only public high school for white students, and by 1938 it had grown to its peak enrollment of more than 5,000 students in grades 10–12. Finally, Tulsa opened two new high schools: Webster High School in West Tulsa (in 1938), and Will Rogers High School east of downtown (in 1939). Booker T. Washington High School was established for African American students in 1913. Tulsa's schools were legally racially segregated until 1955, and remained segregated ''de facto'' at least into the 1970s, due to population patterns and school policies. The construction of Tulsa's Inner Dispersal Loop freeway impaired the school's access to the outdoor physical education facilities at Central Park and Tracy Park. The cost of downtown parking was also a problem. These factors led to the decision to move the school out of downtown. The new campus was opened in 1976, at 31st West Avenue and Edison Street, in the portion of northwest Tulsa that is located in Osage County. The old Central High School building at Sixth and Cincinnati was leased by Public Service Company of Oklahoma ("PSO"). After a complete renovation and extensive interior modifications in 1977, it now serves as PSO's headquarters. The renovated and adapted building has been named a Tulsa landmark by the Tulsa Foundation for Architecture. The former Manual Arts Building at Ninth and Cincinnati is now part of the downtown campus of Tulsa Community College. PSO terminated the old high school building lease and bought the building outright in 2013.

Notable faculty

Adah Robinson

Adah Robinson Adah Matilda Robinson (July 13, 1882 – March 10, 1962) was an American artist, designer and teacher, who influenced many other artists, especially architects, during the first half of the 20th century. Born in Indiana, she was educated in art s ...

, an art teacher at Tulsa Central for several years in the late 1910s, is credited with the design of the Boston Avenue Methodist Church, an outstanding example of religious

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

architecture that is now designated as a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...

. Robinson's collaborator in the design was Bruce Goff, her former student at Tulsa Central, and an architectural prodigy who designed 61 Tulsa buildings between 1920 and 1931.Wayne Curtis
"Tulsa's Deco Gems: How an Oklahoma city fell in love with art deco and never really got over it"
''

Preservation Preservation may refer to: Heritage and conservation * Preservation (library and archival science), activities aimed at prolonging the life of a record while making as few changes as possible * ''Preservation'' (magazine), published by the Nat ...

'', July/August 2008. The precise extent of Goff's and Robinson's respective contributions to the church remains controversial.Gene Curtis
"Dispute rages over church's designer"
''

'', December 25, 2006. Goff and Robinson also collaborated on the design of Robinson's own house, built 1927–1929, and now listed as an Art Deco landmark in Tulsa's Tracy Park Historic District. The house was finished by another Robinson student, Joseph R. Koberling, Jr. who also became an important Tulsa architect and later worked on another city landmark, Will Rogers High School. In 1928, Robinson established and headed the art department at the

University of Tulsa The University of Tulsa (TU) is a Private university, private research university in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It has a historic affiliation with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Presbyterian Church, although it is now nondenominational, and the campus ...

. She redesigned the interiors of several other notable Tulsa churches. She received an honorary doctorate from the University of Tulsa in 1936. From 1945 to 1959 she chaired the art department at

Trinity University (Texas) Trinity University is a private liberal arts college in San Antonio, Texas. Founded in 1869, its student body consists of about 2,600 undergraduate and 200 graduate students. Trinity offers 49 majors and 61 minors among six degree programs, ...

, in

San Antonio San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...

, Texas. She died in Tulsa in 1962.Dianna Everett
"Robinson, Adah Matilda (1882–1962)"
at

Oklahoma Historical Society The Oklahoma Historical Society (OHS) is an agency of the government of Oklahoma dedicated to promotion and preservation of Oklahoma's history and its people by collecting, interpreting, and disseminating knowledge and artifacts of Oklahoma. ...

br>''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture''.

Isabelle Ronan

Isabelle Ronan, who taught at Tulsa Central from 1922 to 1955, became a well-known mentor for students interested in performing arts and broadcasting. In the words of a 1997 ''

'' article,

Teacher of Paul Harvey

One of Ronan's most famous students was radio legend

Paul Harvey Paul Harvey Aurandt (September 4, 1918 – February 28, 2009) was an American radio broadcaster for ABC News Radio. He broadcast ''News and Comment'' on mornings and mid-days on weekdays and at noon on Saturdays and also his famous ''The Rest o ...

, then named Paul Harvey Aurandt. Harvey credited Ronan with getting his career started at the age of 14. Harvey said that Ronan was "impressed by his voice".Rick Kogan
"Good days for Paul Harvey"
''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...

'', August 4, 2002.

She took me by the hand and marched me down to KVOO, and said this young man ought to be on the radio. She just wouldn't accept no. So I did my school chores in the daytime and hung around the radio station so many hours at night that they finally put me on the payroll to limit those hours.Joe Howard
"Paul Harvey: A Legend Looks Back"
, '' Radio Ink'', November 2, 2006.

Harvey told this story in repeated interviews. He also paid tribute to Ronan in a nostalgic 1994 radio broadcast delivered after he had returned to Tulsa for a fundraising banquet.

Other notable Ronan students

In addition to Paul Harvey, other Ronan students at Tulsa Central who went on to professional success in broadcasting or the performing arts included: * Tony Randall (Arthur Leonard Rosenberg), stage, film, and television actor. * Mary Stuart (Mary Stuart Houchins), actress who starred for 35 years as the character Joanne Gardner on the television soap opera ''

Search for Tomorrow ''Search for Tomorrow'' is an American television soap opera. It began its run on CBS on September 3, 1951, and concluded on NBC, 35 years later, on December 26, 1986. Set in the fictional town of Henderson in an unspecified state, the show f ...

''. * Danny Dark (Daniel Croskery),

voiceover Voice-over (also known as off-camera or off-stage commentary) is a production technique used in radio, television, filmmaking, theatre, and other media in which a descriptive or expository voice that is not part of the narrative (i.e., non- ...

artist who was especially well known for his work in famous commercials, including as the announcer who said "Sorry, Charlie" in the Charlie the Tuna commercials for StarKist Tuna. *Frank Morrow, broadcaster, co-producer of the long-running and nationally distributed

public-access television Public-access television (sometimes called community-access television) is traditionally a form of non-commercial mass media where the general public can create content television programming which is Narrowcasting, narrowcast through cable tele ...

cable TV program ''

Alternative Views ''Alternative Views'' was one of the longest running public-access television cable TV programs in the United States. Produced in Austin, Texas in 1978, it produced 563 hour-long programs featuring news, interviews and opinion pieces from a progre ...

''."Central High alumni; Miss Isabelle Ronan, teacher"
a
''Tulsa TV Memories''
*Jack Eddleman, stage actor and director. *Jim Ruddle, NBC News correspondent and longtime radio/TV news anchor in Chicago.

Notable coaches

Eddie Sutton Edward Eugene Sutton (March 12, 1936 – May 23, 2020) was an American college basketball coach. A native of Bucklin, Kansas, Sutton played college basketball at Oklahoma A&M (later Oklahoma State Cowboys basketball, Oklahoma State) and was a h ...

began his head coaching career at Tulsa Central, where he coached 1959–1966 before going on to become one of only seven major men's

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

coaches to have over 800 career wins."Thursday a big day for Central"
''

'', September 23, 2001. Tommy Hudspeth coached

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

at Tulsa Central in 1956 before moving on to the college and professional ranks, most notably for eight years as the head coach at

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU) is a Private education, private research university in Provo, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is the flagship university of the Church Educational System sponsore ...

. Art Griffith was the

wrestling Wrestling is a martial art, combat sport, and form of entertainment that involves grappling with an opponent and striving to obtain a position of advantage through different throws or techniques, within a given ruleset. Wrestling involves di ...

coach at Tulsa Central for 15 years, winning ten state and two national wrestling tournaments. He moved on to

Oklahoma State University Oklahoma State University (informally Oklahoma State or OSU) is a public land-grant research university in Stillwater, Oklahoma, United States. The university was established in 1890 under the legislation of the Morrill Act. Originally known ...

in 1941, where he led the Cowboys to 8 national championships and was elected to the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. Griffith's successor at Tulsa Central was Rex Peery, who later became the Pittsburgh Panthers wrestling coach, and was also elected to the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.

Notable alumni

In addition to the Adah Robinson and Isabelle Ronan students mentioned above, other notable persons who attended Tulsa Central include: * William French Anderson,

gene therapy Gene therapy is Health technology, medical technology that aims to produce a therapeutic effect through the manipulation of gene expression or through altering the biological properties of living cells. The first attempt at modifying human DNA ...

pioneer *

Ralph Blane Ralph Blane (July 26, 1914 – November 13, 1995) was an American composer, lyricist, and performer. Life and career Blane was born Ralph Uriah Hunsecker in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. He attended Tulsa Central High School. He studied singing wit ...

, composer and lyricist * Daniel J. Boorstin, historian and 12th

Librarian of Congress The librarian of Congress is the head of the Library of Congress, appointed by the president of the United States with the advice and consent of the United States Senate, for a term of ten years. The librarian of Congress also appoints and overs ...

1975–1987 * Joe Brainard, artist & and poet, co-founder of ''The White Dove Review'' as a Central High studentKline, Joshua
''The White Dove Review: How a Group of Tulsa Teens Created a Literary Legend''
This Land Press (2010). * Jim R. Caldwell, Class of 1954, former member of the Arkansas State Senate; retired in Tulsa *

J. J. Cale John Weldon "J. J." Cale (December 5, 1938 – July 26, 2013) was an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. Though he avoided the limelight, his influence as a musical artist has been acknowledged by figures such as Neil Young, Mark Knopf ...

, singer-songwriter, pioneer of

The Tulsa Sound The Tulsa sound is a popular musical style that originated in Tulsa, Oklahoma, during the second half of the twentieth century. It is a mix of blues, blues rock, country, rock and roll and swamp pop sounds of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Artis ...

Rocky Frisco Don Roscoe Joseph III (July 26, 1937 – May 26, 2015), professionally known as Rocky Frisco and Rocky Curtiss, was an American musician. He was best known as the longtime pianist for J. J. Cale, and for his role in the development of the music s ...

, rock music pianist *

Jim Hartz James Leroy Hartz (February 3, 1940 – April 17, 2022) was an American television personality, columnist and reporter during the mid- and late-1970s. At age 24, he was the youngest correspondent NBC had ever hired. Hartz became best known to a nat ...

, television broadcaster, co-host of the ''

Today Show ''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'') is an American morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It was the first of its genre on American television ...

'' * Ben Graf Henneke, president of the

, 1958–1967 * Gary Howard, former head coach of the Central Oklahoma Bronchos football program. *

Jim Inhofe James Mountain Inhofe (; ; November 17, 1934 – July 9, 2024) was an American politician who served as a United States Senate, United States senator from Oklahoma from 1994 to 2023. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...

U.S. Senator The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the ...

from OklahomaAndrea Eger
"Central grads to be honored"
''

'', November 12, 2000. * Brandon Jenkins, singer-songwriter from

Tulsa Tulsa ( ) is the second-most-populous city in the state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tul ...

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

who sang in the choir, and taught himself guitar. * George Kaiser, chairman of BOK Financial Corporation, philanthropist, ranked as one of the richest people in the world * Leroy McGuirk, longtime

professional wrestling Professional wrestling, often shortened to either pro wrestling or wrestling,The term "wrestling" is most often widely used to specifically refer to modern scripted professional wrestling, though it is also used to refer to Real life, real- ...

promoter * Shelby Metcalf, head

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

coach at

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

1963–1990 * Les Moss, major-league baseball player, 1946-1958. *

Ron Padgett Ron Padgett (born June 17, 1942) is an American poet, essayist, fiction writer, translator, and a member of the New York School (art), New York School. ''Great Balls of Fire'', Padgett's first full-length collection of poems, was published in 1969 ...

, poet & writer, co-founder of ''The White Dove Review'' as a Central High student * Clinton Riggs, former Assistant chief of the Tulsa Police Department. * James Robinson Risner,

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

Flying ace A flying ace, fighter ace or air ace is a military aviation, military aviator credited with shooting down a certain minimum number of enemy aircraft during aerial combat; the exact number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an ...

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

POW POW is "prisoner of war", a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict. POW or pow may also refer to: Music * P.O.W (Bullet for My Valentine song), "P.O.W" (Bull ...

, double recipient of the Air Force Cross * Charles Schusterman, oilman, founder of Samson Investment Company; philanthropist, founder of Charles and Lynn Schusterman Foundation. * Albert E. Schwab,

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Medal of Honor The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest Awards and decorations of the United States Armed Forces, military decoration and is awarded to recognize American United States Army, soldiers, United States Navy, sailors, Un ...

recipient * John Starks,

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

basketball player *

Patrick Suppes Patrick Colonel Suppes (; March 17, 1922 – November 17, 2014) was an American philosopher who made significant contributions to philosophy of science, the theory of measurement, the foundations of quantum mechanics, decision theory, psycholog ...

philosopher of science Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

"Intellectual Autobiography (written in 1978)"
at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

website (accessed December 2, 2010). * Billy Tubbs,

coach * R. James Woolsey, Jr.,

Director of Central Intelligence The director of central intelligence (DCI) was the head of the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from 1946 to 2004, acting as the principal intelligence advisor to the president of the United States and the United States National Se ...

, 1993–1995

References

External links

Central High School HomepageTulsa Public Schools Homepage
* (alumni website) {{authority control Public high schools in Oklahoma Educational institutions established in 1906 Art Deco architecture in Oklahoma Magnet schools in Oklahoma 1906 establishments in Oklahoma Territory Tulsa Public Schools schools