SWOSU ANOUNCES 2023 DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI

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2023 SWOSU Distinguished alumni

Southwestern Oklahoma State University (SWOSU) with locations in Weatherford, Sayre and Yukon has announced its 2023 Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame inductees.

Known as “SWOSU’s highest honor,” the Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame was established in 1976 by SWOSU to recognize outstanding former students and to celebrate their achievements. There are currently 116 SWOSU graduates who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame.

The 2023 inductees include:

  • Randy Beutler of Weatherford (SWOSU Classes of 1983 & 2003)
  • Richard Darby of Oklahoma City (SWOSU Class of 1981)
  • Dorothy Gourley of Ardmore (SWOSU Class of 1967)
  • Kirti Vaidya Reddy of Jersey City, NJ (SWOSU Class of 1993)
  • The late Michael Chaloner of Edmond (SWOSU Class of 1981)

Randy Beutler is a 1983 and 2003 alumnus of SWOSU who earned a Juris Doctor in 2011. Beutler spent nearly a decade teaching History and Government in Oklahoma’s public schools and was twice elected “Teacher of the Year” by his fellow educators. He was elected to the Oklahoma House of Representatives in 1992 where he served four terms and was elected Majority Whip before joining the staff of Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry as a Senior Advisor and head of legislative affairs. Following four years of service as SWOSU’s Vice President for Public Policy, Beutler began his tenure as SWOSU’s 17th President in 2010. During his presidency SWOSU marked its largest-ever building project and secured its largest-ever charitable gift. He helped forge new partnerships with technology centers and public schools that helped expand SWOSU’s reach and impact and he led the institution through challenges including the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown before his retirement in July 2021. Beutler is the third longest-serving president in SWOSU history.

Richard Darby was born in 1958 and raised in Duke, Oklahoma. He attended Duke High School and was a member of the Duke Tigers basketball and baseball teams. After graduation, Darby enrolled at Western Oklahoma State College and then went on to continue his education at SWOSU where he received a B.A. in political science. In 1984, Darby received his law degree from the University of Oklahoma and spent time practicing law in Altus before beginning his judicial career. Appointed to the Oklahoma Supreme Court by Governor Mary Fallin in April of 2018, Justice Darby serves District Nine, which is located in southwest Oklahoma. Justice Darby previously spent a total of twenty-three years as a district judge for the Third Judicial District, which includes five of Altus’s surrounding counties. First as Special Judge for four years, then Associate District Judge for four years, Darby has now proudly served the Oklahoma judiciary for over three decades. Darby is married to Dr. Dana Darby, Head of School at Altus Christian Academy. They have two sons, Ben and Jonathan. Darby is an active member of the First Baptist Church of Altus where he has taught Sunday school for more than twenty years. He is a prior President of the Altus Rotary Club, Rotarian of the Year, and Oklahoma Court Reporters Association Judge of the Year. In 2020, Darby was inducted into the Western Oklahoma State College Alumni Hall of Fame.

Dorothy Gourley worked as a resident pharmacist and a consulting pharmacist from 1984 to 2015 at Mercy Health/Love County. Under her guidance, the hospital adopted a computerized medication dispensing system. She also worked in independent and chain pharmacies prior to focusing on hospital practice. In 2005, she was first appointed as a member of the Oklahoma State Board of Pharmacy by Governor Brad Henry and then reappointed to a second 5-year term in 2010. She served as president and vice-president during her tenure on the Board. Gourley represented the Oklahoma Board on the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy. Gourley has been a Board member of the Pharmacy Providers of Oklahoma, a non-profit corporation whose sole purpose is to ensure the viability, success, and competitiveness of its participating pharmacy members. At the February 2005 Annual Board of Directors meeting of the Southwestern Pharmacy Alumni Foundation, Inc., Gourley was elected to the Board. She was elected President of the Board in 2015 and served a 2-year term. She continues to serve as a Director. Gourley is also a lifetime member of the SWOSU Pharmacy Alumni Association since 2007. Gourley has been a guest speaker at the 2019 College of Pharmacy Professionalism Dinner and has previously volunteered to serve on various state committees including: The Drug Utilization Review Board for Medicaid for the Oklahoma Healthcare Authority; the Formulary Advisory Council for the Advanced Practice Registered Nurse; and the Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists Formulary Advisory Council. She is a past president and executive council member of the Oklahoma Pharmacists Association. In 2018, Gourley served as Interim Executive Director of the Oklahoma State Board of Pharmacy. She and her husband, Vince, have been married for fifty-three years and are proud parents of two and grandparents of five.

Kirti Vaidya Reddy is a Partner in the Washington, D.C. Office of Quarles & Brady LLP where she practices as a litigator who focuses on government investigations and litigation.  She provides strategic and practical advice on fraud and abuse issues, conducts risk assessments, navigates government investigations, and advises on compliance policies. She defends government enforcement actions involving a wide range of issues including improper billings, upcoding, kickbacks, improper inflation of Medicare Part C plan risk scores, safe harbor provisions of the Anti-Kickback statute, customs fraud violations by manufacturers and wholesalers, false labeling of goods and civil rights issues. Prior to joining private practice, Reddy served for the United States Department of Justice for most of her career. Immediately prior to joining private practice, Reddy was an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, which is one of the nation’s premier legal institutions and is known for prosecuting and litigating complex and significant cases.  As an attorney in the Office’s Civil Division, she was lead counsel on a number of affirmative civil fraud cases, leading investigations and negotiating settlements involving millions of dollars.  Reddy investigated a variety of matters across different industries, including a ground-breaking civil prosecution involving false claims and kickbacks relating to a substance abuse provider and several precedential customs fraud cases.  Reddy also conducted all aspects of civil litigation from initiation of a lawsuit to trial, including employment discrimination, immigration, proposed class actions, torts, and statutory and regulatory challenges.  Reddy holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Oklahoma College of Law and a Bachelor of Arts from SWOSU.

Michael Chaloner was born December 3, 1956, to Marion Kenneth and Cindy (Palmer) Chaloner in El Reno. He passed away Sunday, June 13, 2021, at Houston Hospice in Houston, Texas from complications after an eight-month battle with acute myeloid leukemia.  Chaloner graduated from El Reno High School in 1975. He studied Chemistry at SWOSU, graduating in 1981, and completed his graduate work at the Louisiana State University Graduate School of Banking in 1995. While serving in the Baptist Student Union as Director of Missionaries at SWOSU, Chaloner met Teresa Diane Klein. The two were married May 30, 1978, in Butler. The Chaloners lived in Watonga for a short time where Chaloner served in music and youth ministries. Moving to Hinton in 1979, Chaloner taught high school sciences from 1981 to 1982.  He then began a career at Legacy Bank in 1982, working his way up from teller to serving as President, mentoring many employees during his career climb. Chaloner served in music and youth ministries at First Baptist Church-Hinton and was a deacon there for many years. The Chaloners moved to Edmond once their children were grown and became involved with Life Church. Chaloner was a board member of the Weatherford Regional Hospital, a board member of the Community Bankers Association, and numerous other church and civic organizations. He and Teresa were proud parents of Cody, Aaron, and Melody and were devoted to their eight grandchildren.

The 2023 SWOSU Distinguished Alumni honorees will be recognized during the SWOSU Convocation activities planned for May 5-6 on the Weatherford campus.

For more information, please visit www.swosu.edu or call the SWOSU Office of Institutional Advancement at 580-774-3267.