From the desk of a one-room schoolhouse, Wayne Rumley (BS ’60) learned early to rely on diehard determination and a resilient work ethic. He grew up in the small community of Flint, Oklahoma, and attended Kansas High School. He cherishes his TU experience as one of the most enlightening times of his life, but it wasn’t easy. To afford the classes, Rumley worked nights as a clerk at Tulsa’s downtown post office. “I carried 12-15 hours a semester and worked 60 hours a week,” he said. “Tuition was $500 a semester, and when you’re making $1.65 an hour, that’s a hell of a lot of money.” Rumley initially enrolled in the business college but found he couldn’t ignore his interests in math and engineering. He eventually switched majors and became one of 16 graduates to receive the first bachelor of science degree in chemical engineering (formerly known as petroleum refining). Rumley studied under some of TU’s most well-known engineering faculty of the era including Ralph Kauffman, Ralph Veatch, Paul Buthod, E.A. Howard and Arthur Meehan — sound mentors for Rumley when the demands of a full-time job weighed heavily on his course schedule. “I remember asking my boss if I could take off work to go to chemistry class and he said, ‘I don’t see how that chemical engineering degree is going to help your career at the post office at all.” Luckily for Rumley, his career ambitions reached beyond the duties of a post office clerk. Jobs were scarce in the early 1960s, but that didn’t stop him from buying a suit, a plane ticket and flying to Houston. “I’m old school. Kids today want the jobs to come to them, but I went out and found a job.” Rumley received six offers, and when he accepted a position with the lowest salary he was confident in his decision. “It’s important when you start out to get the right experience and not money,” he said. His career began as a junior processing engineer at Champlin Oil Refinery in Enid, Oklahoma. Later when he and his family, including children Wayna, Sharon, Wayne II and Warren, returned to Tulsa, Rumley’s late wife, Barbara, secretly saved his paychecks for two years to support the launch of his first company, Air Cooled Exchangers. “When I told her we’d need around $12,000, she said, ‘Well, we’ve got it.’ She had saved every other check.” In 1968, Rumley founded R&R Engineering and gave up his salary for six months to secure the company’s financial wellbeing. The company thrives today as a leading expert in the engineering, design and fabrication of air cooled heat exchangers for the chemical, petrochemical and natural gas transmission industries. From his pearl snap shirts to an infectious grin and sunny attitude, Rumley is a man of distinct traits, including his voice. Hoarse and faint, his voice was weakened by a bout with cancer in the mid-1970s. During his treatment, tragedy struck the family when Barbara unexpectedly passed away. Following her death, Rumley found the strength to undergo a fourth and final procedure. “I guess I was tougher than I thought I was. The doctor told me you can’t sing and you can’t shout, but you’re alive,” he said. Forty years later, the memory of Barbara lives on in a TU scholarship named in her honor and specifically allocated to aspiring special education teachers. “TU changed me and gave me the keys to do what I’ve done in my life,” he said. Rumley and his wife, Andrea, are avid supporters of TU’s academic programs, establishing the university’s first endowed chair in chemical engineering. Among the scholarship endowments he has created, Rumley requests selection focus more on the effort of working students, rather than grade point average. “I know what hardship means, and I don’t want that for anyone else.” A Western art collector, Rumley also campaigned for the Gilcrease Museum partnership TU enjoys with the city of Tulsa. While serving on the museum’s search committee for a new director, he told Mayor Susan Savage “We don’t own anything — we’re just caretakers. The Gilcrease collection is Oklahoma’s greatest asset.” Much like his days as a TU student, Rumley still strives to make the most of every moment, every hour of the day by supporting those who’ve chosen his path. “It’s important to follow your desires. If you do it and do it well, you will be successful.”