K. Wiley Cox (BS ’65, Chemical Engineering) knows from experience that a scholarship can change a life. A Tulsa native, Cox grew up in the shadow of The University of Tulsa, and upon graduating from Will Rogers High School, he received a $500 scholarship from the Will Rogers Rotary Club to attend TU. He feels this assistance was the key to his successful life.
At TU, he flourished in the chemical engineering program, and he courted and eventually married his high school sweetheart and fellow TU student, Diane Krumme (BS ’65), who majored in mathematics.
He worked throughout his college experience and made trips to the financial aid office each semester to ask for any help they could provide.
He and Diane graduated in 1965, and Wiley continued his education with a master’s degree in chemical engineering. The couple eventually enjoyed a fulfilling family life with their two children, Kristin and Kenneth, and nowadays, they enjoy traveling and spending weekends at Lake Tenkiller with their children and grandchildren when Wiley is not working.
Cox’s first job was at Celanese Chemicals in Bay City, Texas, where he worked on the plant’s process control computer at the dawn of the data processing/information technology age. This expertise led to jobs in South Carolina and Tulsa, before he went to work for his father-in-law, Harlan Krumme, at Krumme Oil Company in Bristow, Oklahoma. Later, he helped Krumme establish Falcon Oil Properties, where Cox continues to work with his own son-in-law.
Wiley and Diane Cox have been loyal and generous partners of their alma mater, making numerous gifts over more than 40 years to support the College of Engineering and Natural Sciences, the Russell School of Chemical Engineering, the Keplinger Hall renovation (naming the Wiley and Diane Cox Undergraduate Workroom, the Wiley and Diane Cox Math Resource Center and two Wiley and Diane Cox Classrooms), the Edward and Charlotte Howard Memorial Endowment for Mathematics, the TU Annual Fund, the Golden Hurricane Club, the TU Football Program, the Reynolds Center construction, scholarship funds, and Gilcrease Museum, among other programs.
In recognition of Mr. Cox’s career accomplishments and dedication to TU, he was named a TU Distinguished Alumnus, the University’s highest honor, and he was inducted into the College of Engineering and Natural Sciences Hall of Fame. He and Diane also are members of TU’s esteemed Circle Society, the Chapman Legacy Society, the President’s Council, and the Dean’s Circle of the College of Engineering and Natural Sciences.
To show their appreciation for all that their alma mater has meant to their lives, Wiley and Diane Cox also established two scholarship funds at TU in honor of others who are special to them. The Professor Paul Buthod Scholarship Fund for the Department of Chemical Engineering is an annual scholarship fund they established in 2010 in honor of the late Paul Buthod. Buthod was a renowned faculty member and administrator at The University of Tulsa from 1942 until 1986, serving during that time as a Professor of Chemical Engineering, Chairman of the Department of Chemical Engineering, and head of the TU Computer Department. Professor Emeritus Buthod had a unique ability to connect with his students, and he won five outstanding teaching awards from TU along with many other awards for his groundbreaking research.
Mr. Cox befriended and mentored a TU student, and he helped this student establish a scholarship fund in association with the TU Pioneer Program. The Marvin Rowell Endowed Scholarship Fund is named after Marvin L. Rowell, Jr., a TU alumnus who graduated in 2006 with a degree in geosciences before going to work for The Williams Companies as a petroleum geologist. Mr. Rowell also deeply values his TU experience, and he wished to express his appreciation for the financial aid he received by creating a new scholarship for future engineering students at TU. Mr. Cox helped him accomplish this goal.
Wiley and Diane Cox also established scholarships at the Bristow Rotary Club and at Falcon Oil Properties. Over the years, the Cox family has helped many first-generation students achieve their dreams of a college education.
Wiley Cox sums up his sense of gratitude in a simple sentence: “There is no doubt I feel I have a debt to TU for the help I received, and I know firsthand what scholarship money can mean for these kids.”
