Harold C. Stuart led a remarkable life, with enough exciting experiences to fill several biographies. He played poker with Harry S. Truman and briefed generals including George Patton, Dwight Eisenhower, and Omar Bradley. He ran a top-secret mission to Norway and once hunted grizzly bears in Alaska. His career pursuits included periods as a lawyer, judge, broadcaster, philanthropist, director of dozens of corporations and charitable organizations and Assistant Secretary of the Air Force.
“He had only one speed — full throttle,” said his minister, the Rev. Mouzon Biggs of Boston Avenue United Methodist Church. Indeed, Stuart started as president of his kindergarten class and never looked back. At age 4, he took his first job as official fly swatter for a local grocer. “For every 25 flies, I got a penny’s worth of candy,” he said in a 1992 interview with TulsaPeople magazine.
A few years later, he would become inspired by a more idealistic calling — the Boy Scouts, eventually becoming the nation’s youngest Eagle Scout at that time. As an adult, he was honored as a “Distinguished Eagle Scout” and given the Silver Beaver Award for his service to the organization. Stuart said the Boy Scout ideals and the honor code of his alma mater, the University of Virginia, helped shape his life.
Harold Stuart was the second of three sons of Royal and Alice Stuart. His father was president of Oklahoma City’s Fidelity National Bank, and his grandfather, C. B. Stuart, was the first Oklahoma Bar Association president and the Indian Territory’s first federal judge. Stuart returned to Oklahoma after graduating from law school and worked for his grandfather’s Tulsa law firm, which was then known as Doerner Stuart. Living on $15 a week, he shared housing with friends.
In October 1937, while attending a wedding, he met Joan Skelly, the daughter of prominent oilman and University of Tulsa icon, W.G. Skelly. Joan and Harold married the following June.
In 1941, Stuart took a leave of absence from the law firm to accept the appointment of Oklahoma Gov. Leon C. Phillips as judge of the Common Pleas Court. He served in that post until spring 1942, when he enlisted in the Army Air Corps. He wanted to be a fighter pilot, but at 29 was over the age limit for training, so he jumped at a chance to go into combat intelligence. “Once I got into intelligence, everything great happened,” he told the Tulsa World. “I got the best assignments, starting with being attached to the 9th U.S. Army Air Force’s headquarters. The 9th was going to provide air cover for the invasion of France.” Transferred to England, he was assigned director of the 9th Air Force Combat Intelligence Section. He served in that capacity until 1945.
Stuart returned to Tulsa to practice law after World War II, but in 1949, his country called on him again. This time, he went to Norway on an OSS secret mission to save that country’s royal family and government officials in the event of a Russian invasion. Stuart loved Norway, and he and Joan adopted two Norwegian children — Randi and Jon. Later in 1949, two top military officials recommended Stuart for a cabinet post, and President Harry Truman appointed him Assistant Secretary of the Air Force. Among his accomplishments, he recruited the Douglas Aircraft Company to move aircraft manufacturing back into the abandoned Air Force Plant No. 3 in Tulsa.
After his service as assistant secretary, Stuart began practicing law in Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, back in Tulsa, W. G. Skelly owned Tulsa’s KVOO radio station, and he asked Harold Stuart to join him in a deal to start KVOO, Channel 2 television in 1952. Skelly asked Stuart to run the station, which Stuart did — long distance. In 1957, W.G. Skelly died, and Stuart returned to Tulsa to finish building the station, commuting between the two jobs until 1970. The radio stations (FM and AM) merged in 1990 with Great Empire Broadcasting of Wichita, Kansas, and the television station was sold to Scripps-Howard in 1971, renamed KTEW and then KJRH.
When Stuart finally settled in Tulsa full time, he became an advocate for all things outdoors, helping to establish Up With Trees, working as a trustee of the North American Wildlife Federation and Ducks Unlimited, and supporting NatureWorks and the Will Rogers Birthplace Ranch. Among his honors for his volunteer work, NatureWorks donated a Grizzly Bear statue to complement one of his most visible projects, Stuart Park at Gilcrease Museum. He and Joan donated the funds to purchase the land and preserve the view seen from the museum’s Vista Room.
Harold Stuart received a number of tributes, including being named to the Oklahoma Hall of Fame, as a Tulsa Press Club Headliner, and to The Tulsa Air and Space Museum’s national honorary board.
Ever the businessman, Stuart didn’t retire from his law firm until 1992 at the age of 80, even remaining “of counsel,” and continuing to work with his son, Jon, through First Stuart Corp. After Joan’s death in 1994, Harold married a second time, to movie star and Big Band-era singer Frances Langford Evinrude. She died in 2005, and Stuart passed away in 2007, one week before his 95th birthday.
Established in 1961 by Harold and Joan Stuart, the Harold Stuart College of Engineering and Natural Sciences Fund supports the general budget and operations of the College of Engineering and Natural Sciences (now known as the College of Engineering and Computer Science) at The University of Tulsa.
It is only one facet of the family’s ongoing relationship with TU. Stuart’s father-in-law, W.G. Skelly, founded TU’s public radio station, KWGS (for W.G. Skelly), and provided a gift that resulted in Skelly Stadium, now Skelly Field.
Stuart’s daughter, Randi Stuart Wightman, sustained the family’s enduring relationship with the university through her service as a dedicated member of the TU Board of Trustees (2010-2021) and through her continuing involvement with Gilcrease Museum, where she serves on the Gilcrease Museum National Advisory Council.
Jon Stuart also generously donated his time and expertise by serving on the Gilcrease Museum National Advisory Council and by supporting a number of initiatives at both TU and Gilcrease Museum.
