THE OKLAHOMA BAR JOURNAL 74 | MARCH 2026 Oklahoma Bar Foundation News The Founding of the OBF and a Scholarship Legacy 80 Years Strong By Renee DeMoss THE OKLAHOMA BAR Foundation is celebrating its 80th anniversary in 2026! It is with the help of many generous and dedicated lawyers that we have grown throughout the years, and we look forward to celebrating with you at an event on Sept. 18. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn for exciting updates on this event! It was back in 1946 that the idea and purpose of the OBF began to take shape. The OBA was operating out of various locations and looking for a place to call home. The idea was that a separate tax-exempt organization – the OBF – could construct a building on land it would own to serve as a permanent home for Oklahoma lawyers. The vision then-OBA President Gerald B. Klein had for the foundation was, however, much broader. The minutes of the meeting establishing the foundation read: Our primary purpose is to improve the administration of justice, to advance the general welfare of its members, and to serve the interest of our clients and the public. The Oklahoma Bar Foundation will, therefore, be devoted to those ends. Each lawyer is under an obligation to give his support and cooperation. As only the third bar foundation in the nation when it began, the executive secretary of the OBA called the creation of the foundation “one of the boldest and most imaginative steps in the history of the organized bar ... a step which will inure to the benefit of all lawyers in Oklahoma and redound to the public interest.” After the completion of the bar center project and building on the collective support and cooperation of Oklahoma lawyers, the foundation looked for other ways to fulfill its purpose and make an impact. One of those was scholarships that would benefit future lawyers and provide recognition to those who had served the foundation and legal profession well. The OBF now administers eight scholarships annually, totaling approximately $60,000. The first foundation scholarship honored a giant of the bar, Maurice H. Merrill, in 1968. Funded by donations from lawyers across the state, Mr. Merrill was recognized as a beloved professor at the OU College of Law with a long and glorious career at the school. The $500 Maurice H. Merrill Award is given each year to an OU College of Law student involved in the study of public law. In 1969, a new infusion of funds came to the foundation in the form of a charitable trust established by Tulsa philanthropist Leta M. Chapman, as well as a later bequest to the OBF in her will. Photograph used for a story in The Daily Oklahoman newspaper. “Hundreds of lawyers from all over the state were on hand for the official opening of the Oklahoma Bar Association's new $300,000 Bar Center on Lincoln Boulevard south of the state Capitol building.” Courtesy Oklahoma Historical Society.
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