Speakers

Mike Knopp brought rowing to Oklahoma City University as the first rowing coach for OCU ever. OCU became the first varsity rowing program in Oklahoma in 2004 after Knopp started the program as a club team in 2000.
Under Knopp’s guidance, OCU has garnered multiple achievements on and off the water. The success of OCU rowers has increased every year during Knopp’s tenure and has included multiple rowing champions and seen OCU rowers compete on the U.S. Under-23 national team.
Knopp has been instrumental in growing the sport in the state. Knopp was also the driving force behind the OCU Head of the Oklahoma Regatta, an annual rowing competition that attracts more than 50,000 spectators and competitors to Oklahoma City each year. This event has been recognized as the “National Regatta of the Year” and was the first U.S. Rowing competition to include night racing.
Other achievements include the designation of the Oklahoma River as an official Olympic training site, the construction of the Chesapeake finish line tower, multiple local, national, and international championship competitions, and the master plan development of the Oklahoma River.

In Mighty Endeavor: The American Nation and the Second World War historian Blaine Browne provides a highly readable introduction to the war’s military course and its domestic consequences. World War II represented a major transformative event for America, laying the foundations for a modern postwar superpower. Browne chronicles the political, diplomatic, military, economic, and social developments from the end of World War I to the Cold War and economic boom of the postwar years. Each chapter features opening and closing biographies of individuals, some famous, some forgotten, who helped shape the war effort. The profiles represent a wide variety of Americans, civilian and military, men and women, and representing diverse races and ethnicities. Readers who recall the war years to those students studying it for the first time will find The Mighty Endeavor a superb gateway to a pivotal period of American and world history.

Lowe Runkle is an Architect born in bred in the good old state of Oklahoma.  He is a Project Architect and Constuction Administrator that has worked on numerous projects in the Oklahoma City area.  His recent project is the City Counsel Chamber's remodel.  He will share with us the ins and outs of the project and the successful completion..we will learn more, please join us.

Please welcome Emily Rothrock Tate with Calm Waters Center for Children and Families.  Their Mission is to help Children and Families in their grief journey caused by death, divorce or other significant loss.  Emily will also discuss pandemic grief and mental health and how Calm Waters has uniquely helped Oklahomans dealing with grief and loss due to Covid and explain how they will continue to serve those in grief this fall in light of the Covid restrictions.