AUGUST 2025 | 97 THE OKLAHOMA BAR JOURNAL Law while working full time at the Oklahoma Insurance Department. He received his J.D. from the OCU School of Law in 1968. Mr. Ryan was named general counsel for the Oklahoma Insurance Department after graduation. He was appointed by the governor as director of the Oklahoma Department of Securities and later as director of the Oklahoma Department of Consumer Affairs. In 1974, Mr. Ryan was appointed to a judgeship at the Oklahoma Workers’ Compensation Court, where he rose to the level of presiding judge and oversaw the Denver Davison Building. While serving as a judge, he also taught workers’ compensation law as an adjunct professor at the OCU School of Law. In 1984, he formed the law firm known as Boettcher & Ryan, from which he retired in 1998 but continued to serve as “of counsel” to the firm (now known as Ryan Bisher Ryan & Simons). He was an OBA member for more than 56 years, earning his 50-year milestone anniversary pin in 2018. Mitchell E. Shamas of Tulsa died April 7. He was born Oct. 15, 1948, in Bristow and graduated from Bristow High School in 1966. He attended OSU and graduated from OU in 1970. Mr. Shamas received his J.D. from the OU College of Law. He practiced in Oklahoma for 52 years, primarily in the areas of oil and gas, personal injury, workers’ compensation and social security. His legal career began in Bristow before he joined the firm of Bailey, Ash & Romine in Okmulgee in 1974. He started his own firm in 1980 and moved to Tulsa in 1989. Mr. Shamas was honored with the OBA Outstanding Service to the Public Award in 1984 for his pro bono work for people impacted by a tornado in Morris. Heidi Brown Shear of Swampscott, Massachusetts, died Jan. 1. She was born Oct. 22, 1958. She attended Tufts University, where she majored in political science. Ms. Shear received her J.D. from the Boston University School of Law in 1983, where she also earned an LL.M. in tax law. She worked at Maselan & Jones in Boston after law school, where she focused on tax and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974. She eventually moved to Oklahoma City to work with her husband as lawyers at LSB Industries. Ms. Shear retired and moved to Swampscott, becoming involved in the community. She served as president of the ReachArts Community Art Center, baby cuddler at Beverly Hospital and on boards for the Jewish Journal, the Women’s Studies Research Center at Brandeis University and the Metrowest Women’s Fund. Additionally, she started an art gallery in Boston for her husband’s abstract paintings. Donald Lee Sprague of Coalgate died Jan. 3, 2024. He was born Aug. 12, 1932, in Parker. He graduated from Coalgate High School in 1950, where he was the National FFA Organization president. Mr. Sprague enlisted in the U.S. Army during the Korean War and was assigned to the 10th Special Forces Airborne (Green Berets) as a paratrooper. He graduated from La Salle University and received his J.D. from the Temple University Beasley School of Law in 1964. Mr. Sprague practiced law for many years in Philadelphia while also maintaining some ranch operations in Coal County before returning to Oklahoma to expand his ranching operations in 1999. Charles W. Stratton Jr. of Lawton died April 20. He was born July 5, 1935, in San Francisco. He graduated from Lawton High School, where he served as senior class president and district judge for boys’ allstate. Judge Stratton attended OU and was a member of Phi Delta Theta. He joined the U.S. Army in 1956 and spent three years on the East German border. After his service, he graduated cum laude from Southwestern State University. Judge Stratton received his J.D. from the University of Louisville School of Law in 1964. He opened his first law practice in Mt. Washington, Kentucky, before returning to Lawton and opening a private practice. He served as a juvenile probation officer and professor of real estate, business law and economics at Cameron University and founded the Southwestern School of Real Estate. He was appointed as lead counsel and a board member of the American National Bank. Judge Stratton mentored younger attorneys and took pleasure in watching them prosper in their careers. In 1994, he was appointed special judge for Comanche County, and he was elected associate district judge in 1998, where he served four terms before retiring at the age of 80. He was honored with the Comanche County Bar Association Professionalism Award, the OBA Alma Wilson Award and the Gang Prevention Association Gang Prevention Award. Judge Stratton served the community as a board member for United Way of Southwest Oklahoma and Lawton Arts for All and as president of the Lawton Community Theatre and Lawton Country Club.
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