The University of Tulsa continues to benefit today from the contributions and generosity of some of Tulsa’s earliest residents, including well-known oilman Earl P. Harwell. Earl and his wife Mary contributed much to the physical campus and were generous with their time and financial resources from the earliest days of the university.
Earl Palmer Harwell was born in December of 1882 in Ovilla, Texas. He met and married his wife of more than 40 years, Mary Winters Keese, and they moved to Tulsa in 1906. The city was already at the forefront of oil and gas discovery and production. An astute businessman and investor, Harwell became a partner in the McMan Oil Company, at that time the largest independent oil company in the nation. In 1916, Earl and his partners sold the company for fifty-five million dollars.
The Harwells used their considerable wealth to advance several institutions in the beginning days of Tulsa, providing much funding to The University of Tulsa, the Tulsa Boys’ Home, and to First Presbyterian Church in downtown Tulsa. The Harwells owned three city blocks of land in what is now the heart of TU’s campus, and they also provided the money to construct the Harwell Gymnasium at TU. Harwell served two terms as a TU trustee, the first ending in 1918 and the second in 1935. He was awarded an honorary degree from TU in 1932.
In his early association with the university, Harwell in 1918 established a significant endowment fund in memory of his mother, Emily “Emma” Newton Harwell. This fund provided a portion of the salary of the faculty member who served as the Chair of English Bible.
The Harwells were quite active in Tulsa, known both for their comprehensive gifts to TU and for their involvement in the cultural life of the city. In 1923, they built a grand home overlooking the Arkansas River in Tulsa’s Maple Ridge neighborhood. Lavish even by today’s standards, the home, dubbed Harwelden, had thirty rooms on four levels. It was the site of the marriage of Margaret “Margo” Winters Harwell to Jackson Coley Owens in 1942. Margo was the only child of Earl and Mary Harwell. In later years, the home was donated to the Arts Council of Tulsa before it was sold to become a boutique hotel and events space.
Earl passed away in 1950 at the age of 67, and Mary passed away in 1967 at the age of 78. Daughter Margo passed away in 1957 at the age of 37. The University of Tulsa appreciates the Harwells’ substantial and forward-looking support and strives to honor their philanthropic legacy.
