Dewey F. Bartlett

Dewey Follett Bartlett, Sr. (March 28, 1919 – March 1, 1979), a U.S. politician, served as the 19th Governor of Oklahoma from 1967 to 1971, following his same-party Republican predecessor, Henry Bellmon. State law at that time did not allow consecutive terms for governor. In 1966, he was elected governor after defeating the Democratic nominee, Preston Moore of Oklahoma City. He was defeated for reelection in 1970 by Tulsa attorney David Hall in the closest election in state history. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1972 and served one term.

Biography

He was born in Marietta, Ohio, and attended schools in Marietta and Lawrenceville, New Jersey. Following his graduation from Princeton University with a degree in geological engineering in 1942, he served in the United States Marine Corps during World War II. After the war, he moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and held various jobs in farming, ranching, and the oil industry, inheriting ownership of the Tulsa-based Keener Oil and Gas Company from his father, David A. Bartlett. Prior to becoming Governor, he served in the State Senate from 1962 to 1966. In 1970, he was the first Oklahoma Governor eligible to seek a second term. In the general election, he was challenged by then-Tulsa County Attorney David Hall. In the closest Gubernatorial election in state history,Hall unseated Bartlett by a vote of 338,338 to 336,157 [1].

Following his defeat, he served for one term in the U.S. Senate from 1973 to 1979 after winning the seat previously held by Democrat Fred R. Harris. He narrowly defeated U.S. Congressman Ed Edmondson in the 1972 election riding on President Richard Nixon's coattails. During his tenure in Congress, he took a conservative stance on most issues and championed oil and gas interests during the energy crisis of the 1970s. However, he suffered health problems and, rather than face a very difficult reelection against popular Democratic Governor David Boren, decided not to seek reelection. Two months after retiring from the U.S. Senate, he died in Tulsa from complications of lung cancer, and is buried in the city's Calvary Cemetery. In 1990 he was inducted into the Oklahoma CareerTech Hall of Fame and in March, 2006, Congress passed a bill renaming the U.S. Post Office in Tulsa in his honor. [2]

Family

His son, Dewey F. Bartlett, Jr. has served as Mayor of Tulsa, Oklahoma since 2009, as a former member of the Tulsa City Council from 1990 to 1994, and has inherited the Keener Oil and Gas Company from his father.

His grandson, Dewey Bartlett, III has served as the Student Body Vice President of the University of Oklahoma for the 2009 - 2010 school year where he received a degree in petroleum engineering.

References

Further reading

• Bonner, Jeremy (2007). The road to renewal: Victor Joseph Reed & Oklahoma Catholicism, 1905-1971. CUA Press. ISBN 0813215072. http://books.google.com/books?id=JlJWkBjSgzQC. 
• Smith, James (1993). Strategic calling: the Center for Strategic and International Studies, 1962-1992. CSIS. ISBN 0892062371. http://books.google.com/books?id=DM2v2krSHzgC. 

External links

• 100 Years of Oklahoma Governors Biography
• Biographical Directory of Congress Profile
• CareerTech Hall of Fame Bio
• Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture - Bartlett, Dewey