DURANT, Okla. – Two graduates who have enjoyed successful careers in business and education will be honored as Distinguished Alumni during homecoming festivities at Southeastern Oklahoma State University.
Alumni and friends are invited to join in the celebration Oct. 2-3. This year’s homecoming theme is “Come One, Come All to Southeastern — The Greatest Place On Earth.’’
This year’s distinguished alumni – Frank T. Fietz and Sue Wilson Stafford – will be honored at the Distinguished Awards Banquet on Friday, Oct. 2, beginning at 5:30 p.m. in the Visual and Performing Arts Center. They will also be recognized Saturday during pre-game ceremonies at the Southeastern-Southwestern football game.
Frank T. Fietz (’57) earned his bachelor’s degree in business and went to work for the J.C. Penney Company as a management trainee. The Ryan, Oklahoma, native later became a division manager in Fort Worth, Texas. Fietz was recruited by Bealls Department Stores and joined that company in 1962. He worked his way up the ranks, and by 1987 was named Chief Operating Officer of Bealls Department Stores.
In this capacity, he oversaw 160 stores in Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Alabama, along with buying offices in Dallas and a distribution center in Jacksonville, Texas. After facilitating the sale of the company to Specialty Retail Incorporated (SRI) and Bain Capital of Boston in 1988, he became CEO of the Bealls division of SRI. Fietz retired after 27 years with Bealls (now known as Stage) in 1989.
Following retirement, he served as president of “Christian International Business Network,’’ a part of Christian International Ministries.
Fietz and his wife Gay, moved back to Durant in 2005, to be closer to family.
Sue Wilson Stafford (’68) of Madill began her teaching career in Duncan, Oklahoma. Forty-seven years later, she is still teaching – in Frisco, Texas, one of the fastest growing communities in the nation. After teaching 10 years in Duncan, where she was honored as the “Outstanding Young Educator’’ by the Duncan Chamber of Commerce, Stafford and her family re-located to Frisco.
After teaching middle school English and reading, she became the Frisco ISD migrant coordinator and teacher in 1983. The Frisco ISD has established the Sue Wilson Stafford Educational Scholarship in her name. In 2008, the Sue Wilson Stafford Middle School was built and named in her honor.
She has received numerous honors and awards during her career as an educator, and teaches today middle school social studies and English at the Frisco ISD Student Opportunity Center. Stafford also teaches English as a Second Language and GED preparatory to adult students in evening classes.
For a complete schedule of homecoming events, go to alumni.SE.edu.