Long-Time Oklahoma City Leader Shares Insight on Leadership Published April 29, 2015

Tom McDaniel on campus at Rose State College

Long-time Oklahoma City leader shares insight on leadership 

Midwest City, Okla. – Rose State College students have the opportunity to attend the annual celebration of “Law Day” alongside the Midwest City Former Senator Jim Howell, also known as The Country Lawyer, gave an endowment to the Rose State College Foundation which provides lunch for students as well as a keynote speaker to discuss the importance of law in the world. This year’s speaker was Tom McDaniel. McDaniel has a long history of leadership in Oklahoma. After a successful career as a private practice attorney and an executive with the Kerr McGee Corporation, he served as president of Northwestern Oklahoma State University and then president of Oklahoma City University – a position he held for ten years.

McDaniel began with a story of his grandson inquiring about the longevity of Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus. “How do we create something that lasts for 250 years?” his grandson questioned. McDaniel answered with what he referred to as the Paradox of Leadership. The Paradox is that the more things change, the more they stay the same, according to McDaniel. To create something that lasts for 250 years takes hard work, dedication, and commitment because it is those qualities that endure.

More than 100 students and Rotarians were in attendance to celebrate Law Day. The takeaway of the day, in McDaniel’s words, “there is no dream too big, no task too small. Every generation has a rendezvous with destiny and there is a job for every one of us. It is the willingness of we the people to do those small tasks and to produce those big dreams that made the Oklahoma standard and made America great.”