This is from the Tulsa World Re John Oxley who controlled 1,250,000
shares of Presstek.
Philanthropist John Oxley Dies
By World's own Service
9/21/96
John Thurman Oxley, an oilman who brought world-class polo to Tulsa in the 1960s and '70s, died Thursday night. He was 87.
Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. Monday at Second Presbyterian Church, 76 N. Zunis, under the direction of Moore's East-[ 4] lawn Funeral Home.
Oxley and his wife, Mary K. Oxley, donated hundreds of thousands of dollars beginning in the mid-1970s to help establish and operate Oxley Nature Center in Mohawk Park.The 804-acre wildlife preserve covers an area in which the couple often rode horses during their courtship in the 1930s. Mary Oxley died in 1987.
Oxley was born on a cattle ranch near Bromide in 1909. He came to Tulsa at age 17 to attend school.In 1935, he took a job with Tulsa's Warren Petroleum and by 1948 was secretary of the corporation. He launched his own company, Texas Natural Gasoline Corporation, a producer of liquified petroleum.He sold that business to Allied Chemical Co. in 1961 and started a second oil company, Oxley Petroleum, with his son, Jack, in 1962. The business still operates in Tulsa.
Oxley's passion for polo outweighed even his business interests. He was inducted into the Polo Hall of Fame in Florida in 1994, gaining recognition as one of the best all-time polo players in the world. He was captain of the winning polo teams at the U.S. Open in 1961 and in 1966. In 1975, he led the first U.S. polo team to capture England's Gold Cup, one of the most prestigious polo trophies in the world.
Oxley started raising polo thoroughbreds in 1956, and his Greenhill Farms near Owasso became one of the largest commercial producers of polo ponies in the United States. Oxley was a tireless promoter of polo in Tulsa and hoped to popularize the sport with TV coverage. He lead the Tulsa Polo and Hunt Club during its heyday in the 1960s and '70s. Club membership declined during the oil industry's downturn, and Oxley focused his attention on the polo club in Boca Raton, Fla., where he sometimes lived.
Oxley maintained a ranch with a herd of polo ponies on North Memorial Drive until the early 1970s, when noise from the nearby Tulsa International Airport drove him to move to the 6,800- acre Greenhill Farms property. He continued playing polo until age 83.
Survivors include two sons, John C. Oxley of Tulsa and Thomas E. Oxley of Boca Raton, Fla.; a daughter, Mary Jane Tritsch of Terrace Park, Ohio; a brother, Edward J. Oxley of Jensen Beach, Fla.; 13 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.
Memorial donations may be sent to the Oxley Nature Center, 6700 E. Mohawk Blvd., Tulsa, OK 74115.
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Copyright 1996, World Publishing Co. All rights reserved.
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