June 4, 2021
By News Director Jared Atha
Southwestern Oklahoma State University has announced a major gift from longtime SWOSU benefactor and 1980 alumnus Mike North of Oklahoma City.
The North Family Endowment has been established to provide ongoing support to the SWOSU Department of Parks & Recreation Management.
North and his wife, Marilyn Flinchum, are enthusiastic and generous donors to many SWOSU causes including the SWOSU President’s Leadership Class and the SWOSU Charitable Hunt. They are also Founder-level investors in the SWOSU Bulldog Angels Fund, which provides assistance to SWOSU students facing crisis.
In addition to providing substantial, much-needed scholarship support to PRM students on an annual basis, the North Family Endowment will celebrate and award the outstanding PRM graduate each year via the North Family Medal recognition. The North Family Endowment will also offer the local community annual public information on PRM issues and developments through the North Family Endowed Lectureship in Parks & Recreation Management.
In recognition of the magnitude of this generous gift to SWOSU, SWOSU President Randy Beutler has asked the Regional University System of Oklahoma Board of Regents to formally designate the primary instructional facility at Crowder Lake University Park as “The North Family Building.”
