Kim Henry Named To Sarkeys Foundation Post

From The Sarkeys Foundation Website ~ "Sarkeys Foundation announced Wednesday that it has selected First Lady Kim Henry as its new Executive Director.

"She will succeed Cheri Cartwright, the longtime Sarkeys’ executive director who passed away this spring. Henry, a former teacher, has served on the Sarkeys Board of Trustees since 2003.

“'Kim was the natural choice for the job,' said the Sarkeys Board of Trustees in a written statement issued after their decision. 'She has long experience with Sarkeys and tremendous leadership and administrative skills that will serve Sarkeys well going forward.'

"Sarkeys Foundation is a private foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life in Oklahoma by supporting the work of non-profit agencies across the state and offering professional development opportunities in those agencies.

“'I am delighted to serve Sarkeys Foundation in this new role and look forward to working with the board and staff to continue improving the quality of life in Oklahoma,'” Henry said.

"Although Henry will assume her Sarkeys’ duties immediately, she will continue to fulfill all her responsibilities and commitments as First Lady of the State of Oklahoma," the announcement said.

The members of the Sarkeys board of trustees are President Terry W. West, Shawnee attorney; Vice President Richard A. Bell, Norman attorney; Secretary-Treasurer Fred Gipson, Norman retired attorney; Teresa B. Adwan, Tulsa attorney; Kim Henry; Dan Little, Madill attorney; and Joseph W. Morris, Tulsa attorney.

The Sarkeys Foundation, the website reports, was formed in 1962 by S. J. Sarkeys, who was born in Lebanon in 1874 and emigrated to the United States when he was seventeen. On route to South America, he stopped to visit a brother in St. Louis who showed him a new invention: the carbide lamp. Sarkeys found a market for the lamps in Oklahoma and, as he peddled them around the countryside, he began to buy farmland and, later, oil and gas leases. The successful production from these holdings became the basis for the several fortunes he made and lost during his lifetime.

He was ninety when he died in 1965, three years after setting up the Sarkeys Foundation with 2,750 shares of Sarkeys Inc. stock. At the time of his death, the Foundation had made contributions of about $14,000. Since that time, grants totaling over $55 million have been awarded.

With assets of around $100 million, the Foundation provides grants to a diverse group of non-profit organizations and institutions, almost all of which are located in Oklahoma.

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West: Nothing Fishy About Trip

Shawnee attorney Terry West tells The Oklahoman's Michael McNutt there's nothing fishy about the Brazilian fishing trip West and other trial lawyers took with his longtime friend Governor Brad Henry. The trip has stirred considerable comment. Read McNutt's article at http://www.newsok.com/.

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Henry, Trial Lawyers, Judicial Nominating Commission Member Take Brazilian Fishing Trip

UPDATED ~ Five months after he vetoed a tort reform bill described by its advocates as comprehensive and by its trial lawyer opponents as flawed, Governor Brad Henry today is on a Brazilian fishing trip with some of Oklahoma's most prominent trial lawyers who opposed the measure. He took a similar trip in 2003. On the current trip are a member of the Oklahoma Judicial Nominating Commission and two former members, and three past presidents of the Oklahoma Trial Lawyers Association.

A document obtained by The McCarville Report Online shows that on September 21st and 22nd, Henry and 23 others were among those in a Wet-A-Line Tours group booked into the Tropical Manaus Hotel in Ponta Negre, Brazil, an outlying part of the city of Manaus. The hotel is a jumping-off point for Amazon River charter fishing tours that last up to a week.

Paul Sund, Henry's spokesman, confirmed that the governor is on the trip along with his chief of staff, Gerald Adams, and an Oklahoma Highway Patrol security trooper, Patrick Mays. Sund said Henry and Adams paid for their portions of the fishing charter, as well as for surface and air transportation to Brazil. He said the state will pay the costs of Trooper Mays.

Wet-A-Line Tours' normal charge for the Tropical Manaus fishing trip, its website shows, is $4,250 per person. Wet-A-Line Tours is owned, documents show, by Richard W. Schair and is based in Gainesville, Georgia.

The Tropical Manaus Hotel listed 24 persons in the Wet-A-Line Tours group, among them at least 10 Oklahoma trial lawyers as well as Henry, Adams and Mays.

Among those listed are Shawnee attorney Terry West (pictured), two-time past president of the Oklahoma Trial Lawyers Association, one of Henry's earliest supporters. West, a longtime friend of the Henry family, was the roommate of Brad Henry's father in college. The governor, also an attorney, calls him "Uncle Terry."

Also listed are Oklahoma Judicial Nominating Commission member and former Oklahoma Trial Lawyers Association President Jimmy D. Loftis, and fellow attorneys Blake Virgin, John R. Hargrave, John W. Norman, John B. Norman, 2006 Oklahoma Trial Lawyers Association president Brad West, Bart West (Terry West's sons), former Judicial Nominating Commission member William E. Woodson, oilman Paul Hale, Robert D. Bell, Robert L. Bell and Mike Oliver. Hale, Oliver, Loftis, Virgin, Woodson and the Bells also took the 2003 trip based on a report in The Oklahoman at the time. Also listed is Richard R. Dunning, a member of the University of Oklahoma Board of Regents, appointed by Henry earlier this year. Sund said Dunning resigned from the Judicial Nominating Commission earlier this year.

Said Sund: "It is similar to the 2003 trip. It is a charter fishing trip planned by Terry West, an old family friend of the Henrys from Shawnee. Terry West organized everything and invited the various participants. The group is fishing on the Amazon River for a week. They left last weekend and will return Monday. As I understand it, there are more than a dozen people in the group, but I do not know all of the names of the participants other than Governor Henry, Gerald Adams, Terry West and, I believe, some members of the West family. The governor would prefer that security not accompany him on such trips, but as you know, state law requires DPS to provide security to the governor and his family at all times. DPS Commissioner Kevin Ward could address any costs associated with the accompanying security officer or procedures involved in providing security to governors. The governor and the chief of staff are paying for the cost of their trip. No state funds are being expended on them."

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