Bill Gurley

00:00:00Regan Siler: This is Regan Siler with the Bristow Historical Society in Bristow, Oklahoma. This interview is part of the Historical Society's ongoing oral history project. The date is August 7, 2025 and I'm sitting here with Bill Gurley at the Bristow Library Annex. He's going to tell us a little bit about his life and what it's been like living in the Bristow area. Can you please state your full name?

00:00:25Bill Gurley: William Ray Gurley.

00:00:26Regan Siler: Okay, but you go by Bill.

00:00:28Bill Gurley: Go by Bill.

00:00:29Regan Siler: Okay, and do I have permission to record this interview?

00:00:32Bill Gurley: Yes, you do.

00:00:32Regan Siler: Okay. Please tell me when and where you were born.

00:00:36Bill Gurley: Born in Oklahoma City, October the 25th 1939.

00:00:42Regan Siler: Okay, and let's just start off by talking about your family. Can you tell me your parents full names?

00:00:51Bill Gurley: My mother was Neva Matilda [Carmen] Gurley. My dad was Arthur Eulus Gurley.

00:00:57Regan Siler: Okay, and I have your dad's birthday as 9/22/1897?

00:01:02Bill Gurley: Yes.

00:01:03Regan Siler: Okay, I have your mother as March 1, 1902?

00:01:07Bill Gurley: Yes.

00:01:08Regan Siler: Okay, um, what type of work did your parents do?

00:01:12Bill Gurley: My mother was a math teacher at Bristow for 40 years. And my dad was just a rancher and raised cattle, hay.

00:01:20Regan Siler: Okay.

00:01:22Bill Gurley: Pretty much that.

00:01:23Regan Siler: So, I've heard a lot, I've heard your mom's name a lot. I was never blessed to get to meet her, but it sounds like she worked with a whole lot of kids during her time here.

00:01:36Bill Gurley: She died in '97 [9/16/1997] but even after she retired, she tutored a lot of kids.

00:01:42Regan Siler: My husband being one of them. Yeah, yeah. Well, it sounds like she had a very long and fulfilled career here in Bristow. Did that, and I know you told me when we visited on the phone that you have worn many hats in your time teaching, being one of them, and we'll get to that. But did she inspire you at all to become a teacher, or?

00:02:09Bill Gurley: No, that just as a result of, I needed to work and I had the degree.

00:02:18Regan Siler: Worked out that way.

00:02:19Bill Gurley: When you live, when you live on a farm, you got to have something to help support it.

00:02:23Regan Siler: Right, right. I understand that. Do you have any siblings?

00:02:28Bill Gurley: Yes, I had a sister, Barbara Jean, who was, she was born in '42, but she died, and when she was about 40-some years old.

00:02:44Regan Siler: Okay, um, and so just the one sister?

00:02:48Bill Gurley: Yes. And then I have a half-sister and three half-brothers.

00:02:54Regan Siler: Okay, okay. And do the, did you grow up with family around you or?

00:02:59Bill Gurley: Not them, no. They were off somewhere else.

00:03:02Regan Siler: Okay. And so did you grow up in Bristow?

00:03:05Bill Gurley: Yes, I did.

00:03:06Regan Siler: Okay. So, you were born here?

00:03:06Bill Gurley: No. I was born in Oklahoma City.

00:03:07Regan Siler: Well, Oklahoma City.

00:03:07Bill Gurley: But then we moved here when I was six-years-old.

00:03:11Regan Siler: Six, okay, okay, gotcha.

00:03:14Bill Gurley: That's when she started teaching school for a second time was in that year when we came here.

00:03:22Regan Siler: And so whenever you guys moved here, where was your family rooted, like your extended family?

00:03:28Bill Gurley: Here.

00:03:28Regan Siler: Here, okay. Was that the reason why that you guys moved back here?

00:03:33Bill Gurley: Well, my mother owned land here, and my grandparents lived here, and they owned land, so they were rooted here.

00:03:41Regan Siler: Okay, Okay, gotcha, um, well, let's talk a little bit about your childhood. We'll we'll touch on that a little bit and ask some some kind of fun questions to see if you remember. Do you remember any of your favorite toys or games as you were growing up?

00:04:02Bill Gurley: No, mostly I, out in the country, we had horses and cattle, dogs and, you know.

00:04:08Regan Siler: And you probably had to work a lot on your farm, I'm guessing?

00:04:11Bill Gurley: Oh yes, all the time. We had a dairy, up at four o'clock in the morning and four o'clock in the afternoon.

00:04:18Regan Siler: Oh, my goodness, okay. Well, that was going to be my next question is, did you have chores that you were expected to do? So, obviously, that's yes.

00:04:26Bill Gurley: That, plus had took piano lessons, so I have to always practice that.

00:04:31Regan Siler: Really? Okay, and so is that something you enjoyed?

00:04:35Bill Gurley: Well, to be honest with you, not really. Mother kind of forced me into that.

00:04:40Regan Siler: Well, so can you still play today?

00:04:43Bill Gurley: Oh, yeah.

00:04:43Regan Siler: Okay.

00:04:44Bill Gurley: Problem is, I don't have an ear for music, and that's a big difference.

00:04:48Regan Siler: Oh, okay.

00:04:49Bill Gurley: Well, I can sight read, but not play by ear.

00:04:54Bill Gurley: Well, there's just a lot of work maintaining a place where you got, you know, constantly fixing fence, cutting trees, and, you know, had to cut hay and mow. And I remember when I was kid, we had a big silo and had to feed the cattle in the winter with that silage, and they're just constant work.

00:04:54Regan Siler: Right, right. Okay, well, what were some of the things that you did, like on your farm? Tell us about some of the chores that you had to do, other than your, I'm sure, getting up and milking cows first thing in the morning.

00:05:26Regan Siler: Right, right. Did you enjoy it? Or did you know any different?

00:05:34Bill Gurley: I guess I enjoyed it, because that's why I wanted to come back to and be a farmer, rancher.

00:05:39Regan Siler: Farmer, rancher today. Okay, um, so did you living in the country, did you have any friends that would come over and play with you or?

00:05:51Bill Gurley: Yeah, we had kids that come out. We'd ride horses together and just do what, fish down in the pond and go swimming down in the creek.

00:05:58Regan Siler: See to me, that's the good old days, that's, that's.

00:06:01Bill Gurley: Very much so.

00:06:01Regan Siler: Yes, I like that. Did you have any favorite activities or hobbies as a child?

00:06:11Bill Gurley: Other than, you know, dealing with horses, of course, I was in the band, that sort of thing, I liked to hunt.

00:06:23Regan Siler: Hunt, okay. Did you have, like, how much acreage did you guys own?

00:06:28Bill Gurley: Oh, about 500 acres.

00:06:32Regan Siler: Oh, my goodness. So, did you farm all of that, or?

00:06:36Bill Gurley: Mmm hmm.

00:06:37Bill Gurley: 250 at Depew and we had 90 here at Bristow. That much, at least.

00:06:37Regan Siler: Oh man.

00:06:45Regan Siler: So, was it just mainly you and your dad that worked it, all of it?

00:06:49Bill Gurley: Oh, yeah.

00:06:50Regan Siler: Oh, my goodness, that's a lot of work. Do you remember if you collected anything as a child?

00:06:59Bill Gurley: Not really.

00:07:00Regan Siler: Not really, okay. Well, let's talk a little bit about your school life. I know when we visited on the phone, you said you attended Bristow Public Schools for 12 years. Do you remember having any particularly influential teachers in your life?

00:07:17Bill Gurley: Bristow, we were very fortunate to have four doctoral degree people teaching, and I think there's Covey [Lola Effie Best Covey]. She taught a lot of Spanish and English. We had Corey [Kate Broad Baldridge Corey], my mother. She didn't have the PhD, but she had, she could have had.

00:07:41Regan Siler: Yes.

00:07:42Bill Gurley: Because she was an excellent teacher. And we had a excellent history teacher. Anyway, we just had some excellent teachers, I think, in the 50s.

00:07:55Regan Siler: So, whenever you said, you said Corey, the last name was Corey.

00:08:00Bill Gurley: Kate Corey.

00:08:02Regan Siler: And how do you spell, do you remember how to spell her last name?

00:08:05Bill Gurley: C O R E Y.

00:08:06Regan Siler: Okay. And then the other teacher?

00:08:07Bill Gurley: Covey. C O V E Y.

00:08:09Regan Siler: And what was that teacher's first name? Do you remember?

00:08:12Bill Gurley: No.

00:08:13Regan Siler: No? Male or female?

00:08:15Bill Gurley: Female.

00:08:15Regan Siler: Okay, so Ms Covey, okay, um. Do you remember how you got to school?

00:08:23Bill Gurley: I was in the car with my mother.

00:08:24Regan Siler: Okay, so your mom

00:08:25Regan Siler: So you rode, yeah, well, that makes sense. Um, was o was your mom ever your teacher?

00:08:25Bill Gurley: She taught school.

00:08:30Bill Gurley: Oh, yes.

00:08:31Regan Siler: Okay.

00:08:32Bill Gurley: All through, you know, high school, when you had to take math. All the math courses.

00:08:36Regan Siler: Oh, okay, so that's probably why you're good at math, huh?

00:08:39Bill Gurley: Yeah, she even talked physics, so I took that, too.

00:08:43Regan Siler: Okay, okay, um, were you a member of any clubs or organizations? I know you said you were in band.

00:08:49Bill Gurley: Right. Bristow Band. I think we were in a can't even remember the other clubs we were in. There was, there were several that were involved with.

00:09:04Regan Siler: Okay, um, so did you enjoy school overall?

00:09:10Bill Gurley: Yes, I enjoyed it.

00:09:11Regan Siler: You did, okay. Did you have a favorite subject?

00:09:14Bill Gurley: Math, obviously. That's what I got my degrees in.

00:09:17Regan Siler: Okay, okay. Um, well, let's talk a little bit about the house you grew up in, whenever you moved back to Bristow, when you said you were six, and you had this big farm, is that where you lived in your entire 12 years of school?

00:09:31Bill Gurley: Yeah.

00:09:31Regan Siler: Can you tell us about that house? Was it like a farmhouse or?

00:09:34Bill Gurley: Yeah, it was pretty, I'll use the word crude to start with. We had outdoor plumbing, both water and sewage. So we had outhouse and a pump on the outside. But when I was about 10 years old, I helped my dad remodel our house, completely remodeled it, and put indoor plumbing and everything. Yeah, that would have been in what, '49.

00:09:39Bill Gurley: Yes.

00:10:03Regan Siler: Okay.

00:10:03Bill Gurley: It was just an old oil field shack, basically.

00:10:07Regan Siler: Okay.

00:10:10Bill Gurley: And dad remodeled it and turned it into a two story house.

00:10:28Regan Siler: Wow!

00:10:29Bill Gurley: Had several bedrooms.

00:10:30Regan Siler: So, you just learned as you went. Your dad taught you how to do things as you went, huh, as far as helping.

00:10:38Bill Gurley: We just, you know, learn do everything from carpentry to welding to plumbing and electrical. We did it all.

00:10:44Regan Siler: Right, right, okay. Well, can you remember what meal times were like with your with your family? Did everybody sit down to eat?

00:10:53Bill Gurley: Yes, mother cooks the meal and we sit down and ate.

00:10:57Regan Siler: Okay and do you remember, maybe, a favorite meal that she cooked whenever you were younger? Did you have a favorite one?

00:11:07Bill Gurley: Not really. We just ate everything.

00:11:09Regan Siler: Anything that she provided. Okay, well, thinking back to town life and growing up, do you remember any favorite community activities? And when I say that, I mean, like a lot of people talk about Western Heritage Days or county fairs, stuff like that. Can you remember as a young person enjoying any of those activities in Bristow?

00:11:36Bill Gurley: Well, we, Bristow hosted the Creek County, the Creek County Fair every year, which is out here, that's near the where the pool is now. And that was always a big event. My dad was president of the Fair Board, so he was active. He'd always give me tickets to the from the rides. I'd have plenty of those, share with my friend. We had two movie theaters back then, Walmur and Princess Theaters. That was a big event. Go 10 cents to go a movie on Saturday afternoon.

00:12:11Regan Siler: Yeah, yeah, I've heard about those. I wish we had one now.

00:12:15Bill Gurley: Had a pool hall, you go in play pool. Had another, I guess you'd call it, I don't know if you'd call it drugstore or what it was. But anyway, we went, they had a pinball machine. We loved to play pinball.

00:12:30Regan Siler: So, did, was the pool around at that time? Did you enjoy the pool?

00:12:34Bill Gurley: Yeah.

00:12:34Regan Siler: Yeah, did you get to go, did you get to go there much at all?

00:12:39Bill Gurley: Yeah, some.

00:12:40Regan Siler: Okay, um, do you remember any of the, I guess, biggest or most popular businesses around town growing up? Or an yone that sticks out to you?

00:12:52Bill Gurley: We had, Bristow was a really nice community back in the old days, as far as commercial, we had two men's clothing stores. We had, you know, really good, like Safeway Grocery Store. We had, we had Penneys. We had 5 and 10. We had women's clothing stores. We had

00:13:14Regan Siler: It was booming back in the day, wasn't it?

00:13:16Bill Gurley: I mean, we had a lot of good things that have been taken away from us now.

00:13:19Regan Siler: Yeah, well, I kind of feel like, hopefully, we're maybe trending back in the right direction of an upswing in town, hopefully.

00:13:27Bill Gurley: We are growing, but, you know, Walmart is taking everything away.

00:13:31Regan Siler: Yeah, that's kind of been the general consensus whenever I have done these interviews, is that when Walmart came and the turnpike came, it really kind of changed the landscape of Bristow and the, you know, the smaller stores closed, and it kind of kind of changed everything.

00:13:32Bill Gurley: Just can't compete.

00:13:43Regan Siler: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Did you have a favorite hangout as a teenager?

00:13:55Bill Gurley: Home.

00:13:58Regan Siler: Home?

00:13:59Bill Gurley: Farm.

00:13:59Regan Siler: Yeah, you were always at the farm, huh?

00:14:01Bill Gurley: There was plenty to do there.

00:14:03Regan Siler: Oh, I can imagine.

00:14:04Bill Gurley: Horseback riding, yeah, fishing, you know, just anything you wanted to do.

00:14:08Regan Siler: Right. Do you have any particular memories of the train depot?

00:14:15Bill Gurley: Not really other than just seeing trains come through.

00:14:20Regan Siler: Right, right, okay, um, well, let's see, do you remember, do you happen to remember your family's first car?

00:14:29Bill Gurley: I don't know whether it was the first one or not. I can remember like a '49 Ford.

00:14:39Regan Siler: Okay, okay. Do you remember your first car?

00:14:42Bill Gurley: 1955 Ford.

00:14:45Regan Siler: Ford. And who taught you how to drive?

00:14:48Bill Gurley: Well, myself, I guess.

00:14:52Regan Siler: I'm guessing you were probably driving long before you had a license, since you were on the farm.

00:14:56Bill Gurley: I started driving a tractor, you know, when I was eight or ten years old. From then on, It's just natural.

00:15:01Regan Siler: Yes, yes. Okay, so did you have or what sort of entertainment did you have growing up? Did you have a TV at some point?

00:15:15Bill Gurley: I think about 1950 we got a TV for the first time.

00:15:19Regan Siler: Okay, and do you remember any particular programs you enjoyed watching?

00:15:24Bill Gurley: Not really. I can't think of anybody, any that we really watched. It's kind of wasn't too many to choose from.

00:15:33Regan Siler: Right, and I'm sure you were probably always outside and, you know, it

00:15:38Bill Gurley: Well of an evening, you always did that sort of thing.

00:15:41Regan Siler: Right, right. So, do you remember seeing any pivotal moments on TV, like newsworthy moments? I've had some people tell me that they remember like when JFK was shot or

00:15:56Bill Gurley: Well, I remember that very vividly, but, of course, I was in college, but then.

00:16:00Regan Siler: Right, right.

00:16:01Bill Gurley: That was momentous event,

00:16:02Regan Siler: Yeah, yeah, yeah, but nothing else that you can.

00:16:06Regan Siler: I just remember hearing stuff about World War II on the radio. You didn't have TV, then.

00:16:13Regan Siler: Did you, was music, I know you said you you played piano, but did you frequently, like listen to music like the radio or and what type of music did you like?

00:16:26Bill Gurley: Just the popular music at that time. You know, you just had good singers like Frank Sinatra and all those good singers,

00:16:33Regan Siler: Right. Okay, what was medical care like for you growing up? Did you have a family doctor or did you mainly take care of, did your mom take care of stuff at home? Or how did that work?

00:16:46Bill Gurley: Probably most of it was at home. I remember cut my hand one time, and, you know, we just looked at it and put a band aid on it.

00:16:56Regan Siler: Patched it up as best as possible.

00:16:57Bill Gurley: I remember one time I stuck a big splinter under my thumbnail, and it went way deep, and Dad took his pocket knife and literally cut a little square out of the center of it and pulled it out through that little hole. I can't imagine that being done today, or even surviging it. But yeah, that's the way it was back then. Of course, we had the

00:17:20Regan Siler: I think you guys were a lot tougher than what we are these days.

00:17:23Bill Gurley: We had, I just remember we had there on Eighth Street, there, just west of Main Street, there was a clinic, and when I was six years old, had my tonsils out there. But it was just in the clinic that we had it done. Put you under ether anesthetic, and took your tonsils out, ate ice cream for a week.

00:17:41Regan Siler: So, it wasn't all bad, huh?

00:17:43Bill Gurley: But that's the way it was. You didn't, didn't do much in the way of doctors.

00:17:49Regan Siler: Right, right. So, and I forgot to ask you, as far as, like, where your house and your farm was, where was that located at roughly?

00:17:57Bill Gurley: It's a mile south of town, about a quarter of a mile west of 48 on Airport Road.

00:18:05Regan Siler: Okay, okay. Did you attend church growing up?

00:18:11Bill Gurley: Yes.

00:18:12Regan Siler: You did. Okay. Where did you attend?

00:18:14Bill Gurley: First Christian Church here in Bristow.

00:18:15Regan Siler: Okay. So, where is that one located?

00:18:19Bill Gurley: Just right down the street.

00:18:20Regan Siler: Okay, okay, um, and then I know you told me you were a born again Christian in 1974, so around 21 ish. Were you 21 I guess, maybe?

00:18:33Bill Gurley: What, 25? No, 34.

00:18:36Regan Siler: Oh, I must have had

00:18:37Bill Gurley: '49 to '74.

00:18:39Regan Siler: I had bad math there.

00:18:40Bill Gurley: Thirty-four.

00:18:42Regan Siler: And I'm saying that in front of a math teacher.

00:18:44Bill Gurley: I was, I was baptized when I was 12 there in that First Christian Church, but it, the Lord looked after me from that point on, but I did, wouldn't, didn't give him too much time until I was 34 and

00:18:57Regan Siler: Then rededicated.

00:18:59Bill Gurley: Yeah, I had the real experience with the Lord.

00:19:01Regan Siler: Well, that's neat. Alright, well, let's talk about holidays in your family. Were holidays a big deal?

00:19:11Bill Gurley: I guess you'd say somewhat. You know, birthdays, Christmas, Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving was always a big thing, because have big dinners.

00:19:19Regan Siler: Did all the family come to your house? Or did you go somewhere?

00:19:22Bill Gurley: Pretty much, my mother had four, three sisters, and they'd show up their families. We just had to get togethers most of the time.

00:19:32Regan Siler: So, is Christmas more about, I guess, maybe being together and having a good meal, versus, say, like presents, or what?

00:19:41Bill Gurley: There was always presents associated with Christmas alonw with a meal.

00:19:46Regan Siler: Can you remember any, any particular thing you got that stuck out in your memory for Christmas?

00:19:51Bill Gurley: Just remember a bicycle when I was six years old. Primarily, other than that, I can't remember too much.

00:19:58Regan Siler: So, that was a big deal. As a child, do you remember what you wanted to be when you grew up?

00:20:07Bill Gurley: Yeah, really, I wanted to be a rancher.

00:20:09Regan Siler: Really? Okay, and you still do that now, correct?

00:20:13Bill Gurley: Well, not now I'm retired.

00:20:14Regan Siler: Well, okay.

00:20:15Bill Gurley: I sold all the land then.

00:20:17Regan Siler: Oh, okay, okay.

00:20:19Bill Gurley: It's just too much work to maintain all that stuff.

00:20:22Regan Siler: So, did you have your, so did, were you still working your family ranch?

00:20:27Regan Siler: So, that was still in your family? Wow! Okay, um, all right, well, let's talk about college. When we visited on the phone, tell me where you went and what degrees you achieved, and tell me a little bit about your college experience.

00:20:27Bill Gurley: Yes.

00:20:50Bill Gurley: I went to OU, University of Oklahoma for 1957 to '60, and I got my undergraduate degree in mathematics. Then I went to OSU in 1960 and I got my masters and PhD, finally, in 1964.

00:21:07Regan Siler: And you said that was in math statistics?

00:21:09Bill Gurley: That was mathematical statistics.

00:21:11Regan Siler: Okay, okay. And did you enjoy your college experience?

00:21:15Bill Gurley: Very much.

00:21:15Regan Siler: Okay.

00:21:17Bill Gurley: What free time you have.

00:21:18Regan Siler: Yeah, well, and I think it's so much different whenever you go to college versus maybe, like high school, you're going for something that you want to do, that you're wanting to pursue. So, it has a little bit of, I feel like it feels a little different whenever you're doing it for yourself and something that you want to do.

00:21:36Bill Gurley: You've got an objective, you got kind of go for it. It's not, it's not a chore so much is just .

00:21:41Regan Siler: Yes.

00:21:43Bill Gurley: Working to get that job.

00:21:44Regan Siler: Yeah, you're trying to achieve it. Okay, so for the man that has worn many hats, let's talk about your work life. So, say whenever you got out of college, tell me, like, what was your first major job that you had?

00:22:03Bill Gurley: Well, I started working 1964 with Sunray DX Oil Company in operations research analyst.

00:22:10Regan Siler: And it was Sunray?

00:22:12Bill Gurley: Sunray DX Oil Company.

00:22:14Regan Siler: Okay.

00:22:14Bill Gurley: They were in Tulsa.

00:22:15Regan Siler: Okay.

00:22:16Bill Gurley: And then a couple of years later, another gentleman worked there and I, formed a company called Petroleum Marketing Research Company.

00:22:23Regan Siler: Okay.

00:22:24Bill Gurley: We had designed a computer program that would basically tell you how many gallons of gasoline a service station would produce wherever it's located in the city. We were successful to sell it to four major oil companies. Then we got this throughout all the cities that they can do survey work to supply the monster that we created.

00:22:46Regan Siler: So, would you say that that was that technology was ahead of its time at that time? That sounds like a pretty big accomplishment.

00:22:56Bill Gurley: Well, it was just using what you call it, the intuition, or to figure out how to make it work. And we did.

00:23:10Regan Siler: You did and it was successful.

00:23:11Bill Gurley: And then we programmed it back then we had big 360 IBM computers. My cell phone probably got more capability than that did.

00:23:21Regan Siler: Right, right.

00:23:22Bill Gurley: Yeah, it had a million bytes of worth of storage, where today we're talking gigabytes and terabytes.

00:23:30Regan Siler: Right. Yeah, the technology advancements have been crazy in a relatively short period of time. Um, okay, so what was your, where did you go from there?

00:23:42Bill Gurley: Okay, from there that finally dried up. I moved back to Bristow and started ranching for a while, and then after that, opportunity opened up, where I started programming a guy's computer that was over at Stroud, and from that, led into programming computers for all of these Oklahoma. Primarily because I got involved, because people didn't want to leave Tulsa to go out in the small town. So, I didn't mind doing that, and I'm getting decent wage for programming the old Wang computers back then. They were pretty, pretty good computer. In fact, I helped put one of the first computers, it's a American National Bank, which is now Spirit Bank. I programmed it. It was, they had a big mainframe that did their main checking account. But I was dealing with the loan applications. Had a little computer for that, so I programmed that. That was the first one they had in house. Tracy Kelly and Levan Kelly and Royce Kelly were all people that I was involved with.

00:25:00Regan Siler: I actually grew up in the American National Bank because my mom worked there. So, around, do you remember around what year that would have been?

00:25:09Bill Gurley: Probably '79 through '80, '81, '82, '83.

00:25:14Regan Siler: So, that's that's cool. You saw a need, because, honestly, it kind of seems like that now you can't get people to come out of Tulsa to come to the smaller towns, so that's neat that you saw the need and you you filled it.

00:25:28Bill Gurley: Yeah, and then as that expanded, and I started selling computers as well, and opened up an office in Tulsa and Oklahoma City, where we, I worked with this Wang salesman, too. I sold their computers and programmed them. It was fun, and that area kind of dried up. And about '86 something like that. And then '87 I ran for office, for state representative, and got elected for four years down there.

00:26:04Regan Siler: And tell me what the you told me on the phone, a little detail about that, that you were the first.

00:26:09Bill Gurley: Oh, I was the first Republican elected in Creek County. Which is it was totally democratic back in those days. Of course, now it's completely turned around the opposite direction.

00:26:19Regan Siler: Right, right. So, how would you describe your experience being a representative?

00:26:28Bill Gurley: Well, it's very, it's a lot more demanding than you think, because people are always calling you, asking you to do this and do that and help them do that. You know, it get a lot of problems solved. But it's also a, it's a good, interesting job to be involved with. You're helping make laws for the whole state.

00:26:52Regan Siler: I can see where it would be a very rewarding, could be a very rewarding venture. So ,were you doing that while you were working, or were you just doing that?

00:27:07Bill Gurley: When you say working, I've always had the farm and ranch, but I was doing that was in addition to that.

00:27:13Regan Siler: In addition to, okay, yeah.

00:27:16Bill Gurley: But what I was doing, I wasn't doing any computer work when I was doing that.'

00:27:21Regan Siler: Right. That's kind of what I meant.

00:27:22Bill Gurley: Now that the computer stuff dried up in about '86. In '87 I ran for office, got in for four years and went back, you know, back to the ranch after that. At '97 then I think it was that first started teaching at Depew. Taught there two years. Then I came over to Bristow in '99 and then I was technology director here for the Bristow Schools for two years. We had about 550 computers that we had to deal with, maintain that fiber optic network.

00:27:56Regan Siler: So, in all the hats you've worn, did you have a favorite hat?

00:28:01Bill Gurley: They're all enjoyable. Always loved ranching. I guess I loved programming computers too. I mean, that was good. That was a fun job. And I didn't mention it, but one other one in between there about '77 I guess it was. I helped Paul Montgomery over Slick for about a year. We tried, we were trying to build horse buggies for, you know, horse and buggy type situation. And turned out I wasn't that good at the carpentry, so I just let him have the whole thing. And that's when I got into the computer business.

00:28:44Regan Siler: You went back to computers.

00:28:44Bill Gurley: And Paul went ahead and made some beautiful buggies, working with, I can't think of his first name, but Groom was his last name. Down there at Slick.

00:28:53Regan Siler: Well, then you also mentioned to me, when we had visited about Activation Outreach. Can you tell me about that?

00:29:02Bill Gurley: Well, we started, Majel Wisotsky. She was, she headed it up, and we started a group called Activation Outreach, just a small church group. We met Methodist Church Annex a couple of years. And she got married, moved to Texas.

00:29:22Regan Siler: So, what kinds of, what kind, tell me more about that, like, what, what did that program do?

00:29:30Bill Gurley: Well, mainly, we're trying to just help people, you know, that's, that's the main thing, is to get out and witness to people and also help people that need help, elderly. And we needed a lot of homeless work too, witnessing the homeless people.

00:29:46Regan Siler: So, locally, or anywhere?

00:29:48Bill Gurley: Locally,

00:29:48Regan Siler: okay.

00:29:50Bill Gurley: Primarily locally, So it's, you know, we're trying to get people to basically ideas, to bring people to life. Because the truth of the of the gospel is Jesus came that we could be free from all the junk that pollutes our lives. That's what He said. I came to set the captives free. So, we want, see those people are slaves to drugs and a lifestyle that's just drug 'em down. But if you really under, get a hold of the Lord, then he will set you free. And that was our whole objective, is to work in that realm.

00:30:30Regan Siler: So, is that still going on even though she has moved?

00:30:34Bill Gurley: Well, we still meat in our home on Wednesdays, uh, small group of us, but it's not very, not very large at the moment.

00:30:41Regan Siler: Not large, okay, okay. Well, let's talk a little bit about your immediate family. Can you tell me your spouse's full name?

00:30:52Bill Gurley: Peggy Ann Gurley.

00:30:54Regan Siler: Okay, and I have her birth date is February 22, 1942.

00:30:58Bill Gurley: Correct.

00:30:59Regan Siler: Okay. Um, When and where did you meet her?

00:31:05Bill Gurley: In Stroud [Oklahoma]. We were involved with the Full Gospel Businessmen Association there, and we'd meet once a month for a dinner meeting, and a speaker would speak. And her husband was, he and I were both directors for that organization. He was veterinarian over there at Stroud. And then in 1976, he had a terrible plane accident. He had a private plane that they were flying. It crashed behind his house, or at least about a mile north. But anyway, as a result, she was a widow with four children. I knew her through that we were part of that organization. [Indecipherable] the Lord said that you're gonna marry Peggy Robertson. And I thought it was four kids, you gotta be kidding. But it turns out, we've been married for 48 years now.

00:32:02Regan Siler: Oh, my goodness. Well, congratulations. That's an accomplishment.

00:32:05Bill Gurley: Yes, it was good thing.

00:32:07Regan Siler: Um, so did you just decide you wanted to get married? Or did you have an engagement period? Or, how did that, how did that work out?

00:32:18Bill Gurley: Well, we walked in, we went to a church in Tulsa in separate cars, and we happened to walk in the church together and sit down together, and then when the preacher said, everybody, hold hands. You know, how they do. We held hands, and they just felt electricity going up and down our arms. And that was kind of a confirmation that this is good.

00:32:43Regan Siler: That was, that was your positive sign.

00:32:46Bill Gurley: We, we, what do you call it, courtship was going over to her house and eating supper with all with all the kids around you. Didn't go out too much.

00:32:57Regan Siler: Okay, well, so, when and where did you marry?

00:33:01Bill Gurley: We were married at the First Assembly of God in Stroud in 1977.

00:33:10Regan Siler: So, I have March 5, 1977?

00:33:13Bill Gurley: Yes.

00:33:13Regan Siler: Okay, did you have a small wedding? Big wedding?

00:33:18Bill Gurley: Yes, I'd say small. Maybe 20 to 25, people, probably.

00:33:22Regan Siler: And, so, were you living in Bristow and she was living in Stroud at the time?

00:33:25Bill Gurley: I was living in Depew.

00:33:26Regan Siler: Oh, you were living in Depew? Okay.

00:33:28Bill Gurley: Had a farm over there.

00:33:29Regan Siler: And then, so, then you all ended up.

00:33:33Bill Gurley: They all moved to Depew.

00:33:34Regan Siler: Okay, gotcha.

00:33:34Bill Gurley: Kids all went to school at Depew.

00:33:36Regan Siler: Okay, okay.

00:33:37Bill Gurley: They all graduated from Depew School.

00:33:39Regan Siler: Okay. Um, so how many children do you have?

00:33:46Bill Gurley: Total, we have seven. I had two. Peggy had four, and then she and I had one.

00:33:51Regan Siler: Okay, do you want to tell me their names so we can have that on the recording?

00:33:56Bill Gurley: Well, there's Mark Steven Gurley. There's Ambra Leigh Gurley [Maxon]. Then there's Deborah Ann Gurley. There's Kim Roberta, well, her name's Shepherd now but and then there's Heather Lynn Spencer. There's Kip Robertson Gurley, and then there's Jennifer Kay Alexander. She's our youngest.

00:34:25Regan Siler: Okay, and how many do you, I'm guessing you probably have grandchildren, too? How many grandchildren?

00:34:31Bill Gurley: We've got like 16 grandchildren and 17 great grandchildren?

00:34:34Regan Siler: Oh, my goodness! So, you have a huge family. Do you remember any particular challenges of being a dad when your kids were young?

00:34:46Bill Gurley: Well, there's always things you gotta deal with, like your daughter getting hit with she's riding her motorcycle and getting hit with a pickup truck out on Highway 66. You talk about a miracle. She pulled out in front of that pickup. He said he was going 54 miles an hour when he hit her. It literally caved in that motorcycle. She had not a scratch on her. She had a bump on her head where she stayed with the motorcycle and it laid over on the on the highway, and it bumped her head, and that was the only, and how she got her leg out away from when that pickup hit the side of that motorcycle. I don't know.

00:35:34Regan Siler: How old was she?

00:35:36Bill Gurley: Fourteen.

00:35:37Regan Siler: Oh, my goodness. So that's

00:35:40Bill Gurley: You know, that's just one example.

00:35:42Regan Siler: Yeah, oh, yeah.

00:35:43Bill Gurley: And then you got the, I remember my son Mark, when it was with him. I was coaching Little League ball, baseball. That was a fun time. Of course, you got just think of kids hauling hay. When we first got married, we bailed 10,000 bales of hay every summer, and she and my wife and I and the four kids hauled all the hay, put it on the barn with maybe one one person's help that we'd hired.

00:36:07Regan Siler: Oh my goodness!

00:36:09Bill Gurley: Fun times!

00:36:14Regan Siler: I guess that's probably why the heat doesn't bother you, huh? Well, so I know now you said you retired. Have you enjoyed being retired? And do you have any hobbies now that you enjoy?

00:36:28Bill Gurley: Well, after I retired, I think it was maybe 2009, I got involved with one of my best friends from high school and Frank Groom. We had a Bristow handyman business, so we remodeled out all over town. Had that for several years.

00:36:48Regan Siler: Frank Groom is actually the one that recommended you on being interviewed, so you can thank him for that.

00:36:57Bill Gurley: Well, he's a good friend, and we enjoy working with him. I mean, we, we are very compatible, and I don't, it's just fun to do that sort of thing is to create things.

00:37:09Regan Siler: Now did you help with the renovation of the Bristow Social Services, the project that he worked on there?

00:37:18Bill Gurley: Yes.

00:37:18Regan Siler: Okay.

00:37:19Bill Gurley: We did. We were, we were both involved in that. He kind of headed it up, but I helped.

00:37:24Regan Siler: You helped?

00:37:24Bill Gurley: And then also I got involved with the Cornerstone Church here on Seventh Street. You know, down there by the alley. I have completely remodeled that 10,000 square foot building, two story, and we gutted it.

00:37:38Regan Siler: It doesn't look like it's 10,000 square feet. It there's a lot of

00:37:42Bill Gurley: 5000 down and 5000 up.

00:37:45Regan Siler: Wow, okay.

00:37:45Bill Gurley: I mean, it used to be an old hotel, and all those old rooms. We totally gutted it made it into different rooms.

00:37:53Regan Siler: So, do you still do handyman work?

00:37:53Bill Gurley: No.

00:37:53Bill Gurley: I might help somebody, or, you know, somebody wants a wheelchair ramp or something, Frank and I will put it in, but we don't advertise that we're available.

00:38:05Regan Siler: Okay, okay, well, what would you consider to be the most important invention during your lifetime?

00:38:15Bill Gurley: Invention? Probably would be the computer.

00:38:24Regan Siler: I kind of,

00:38:26Bill Gurley: You know, on into the, cell phones and tablets and everything we got now, laptop.

00:38:33Regan Siler: Somehow, I kind of figured you might say, the computer. How do you feel the world is different now than when you were a child?

00:38:43Bill Gurley: Well, we've really gone, we've lost a lot of the, I'll use the word innocence, that we used to have, which it all goes back to the truth of the matter is, everything has gone anti Bible. If you want to call it that. God's Word, the left, you got the right and left in politics. But the left has taken an anti everything that the Bible believes. they take the opposite, whether it's, you know, sexual situations, don't speak, you know, cussing and all that sort of thing. You got your, the homosexual, all that thing is just the opposite of what God said we should do, and that's how the worst thing it has done is that changed. I don't we're still having wars all over the place. Doesn't seem to be getting any better.

00:39:41Regan Siler: As you see it, what do you feel is our nation's biggest problem and how do you think it could be solved?

00:39:50Bill Gurley: I don't know what the biggest problem is. Biggest problem is our national debt. That's the biggest problem. I don't think it can be solved. There's so many trillion dollars in debt, that can't ever be solved.

00:40:06Regan Siler: Yeah, fiscal responsibility has gone out the window.

00:40:09Bill Gurley: Yeah, that morality. There's two issues that, and another obvious one is the drug problem. I think most of our homeless people are causing drugs, and that whole thing is just, you know, it pulls weight down on society, because you have to take, take care of those people somewhere. I don't know if there is a solution, because nobody seems to want to truly tackle it and stop it coming into the country.

00:40:39Regan Siler: Okay, how have historic events say, like maybe the Oklahoma City bombing, 9/11, natural disasters, world wars, even covid, affected you, and you can pick one or several, or have any of the natural have any natural disasters affected your life, personally, or historic events? I'm sorry, not natural disasters?

00:41:10Bill Gurley: Well, one natural disaster was a tornado went across our farm in 1960. Had a lot of rebuilding that took place as a result of that.

00:41:20Regan Siler: Did it damage your home or just the barns?

00:41:22Bill Gurley: Took the barns out and a house that was sitting across the driveway from our house. We had an extra house sitting there, and it disappeared. It took the shingles off of the main house. Had a big, two story brick house. Took the shingles off and a few bricks off of one area, but basically left it standing.

00:41:42Regan Siler: Did you have a cellar at the time? Where were you when it hit?

00:41:44Bill Gurley: I wasn't in it at the time, but the person living there, he said he was in the cellar, and it said bricks were hitting that cellar door like bullets.

00:41:53Regan Siler: Oh my goodness.

00:41:54Bill Gurley: But the house survived. And then, of course, we, you know, remodeled it and brought it up to current standards. Because I had to remodel the inside, with the plumbing and all that had to be redone.

00:42:06Regan Siler: Okay, well, is there anything else that you would like to tell us or share any wisdom for future generations?

00:42:18Bill Gurley: I can't say anything offhand, really.

00:42:23Regan Siler: I know you have, I know you have some kind of wisdom to share in there.

00:42:29Bill Gurley: The biggest wisdom you can give anybody is that get have a relationship with the Lord. Be born again, because everything hinges on that as far as to have a He promises an abundant life, prosperous life, and that that's the solution to it, is to start there. Beyond that, I mean, it's it'll take care of itself once you get started.

00:42:56Regan Siler: I like that answer. That's good wisdom to share. Is there anything else that we didn't cover that you would like to add to this interview?

00:43:08Bill Gurley: I can't think of anything at the moment.

00:43:09Regan Siler: Can't think of anything? Okay, well, your interview will become an important part of the oral history archives for the museum. Thank you for taking the time to talk with us. We really appreciate it.

00:43:16Bill Gurley: Thank you. NOTE TRANSCRIPTION END