Class of Distinction

Longtime Spears School of Business supporters Steve and Diane Tuttle and the ExxonMobil Controllers Alumni Group were inducted into the Spears Hall of Fame on Nov. 3 at the ConocoPhillips OSU Alumni Center in Stillwater.

The annual Hall of Fame banquet recognizes Oklahoma State University graduates with distinguished professional careers who have given back to their communities and displayed leadership skills. The Tuttles and the 14 OSU alums making up the ExxonMobil Controllers Alumni Group were the 2017 inductees into the Spears Hall of Fame, the highest honor awarded by Spears Business.

“For the past 52 years, we’ve been honoring some of our finest graduates, and this year’s honorees were certainly deserving to join this impressive group,” said Ken Eastman, dean of Spears Business. “Both Diane and Steve Tuttle are an inspiration to all of us at the Spears School through their professional and personal success, and the ExxonMobil Controllers Alumni Group includes eight ExxonMobil retirees (and their spouses) who are great examples of the impact a unified group can have when pooling their resources and working together.”

Steve and Diane Tuttle are longtime supporters of OSU and Spears Business. A Tulsa native, Steve attended OSU for two years before he was drafted into the Army, serving from 1969 to 1971 as a military police officer in Vietnam. He returned to OSU following the war, earning a bachelor’s degree in marketing in 1973. Diane earned her bachelor’s degree in business management in 1985 from OSU.

The Tuttles have three children – Justin Tuttle, who is married to Marissa, and lives in Frisco, Texas; Natalie Belie, an OSU grad who lives in Tulsa, and Lindsey Belie, who lives in Madill, Okla.

The ExxonMobil Controllers Alumni Group includes Jim and Linda Alcock, Jim and Susan Heidebrecht, Tom and Suzanne Hill, Terry Hinshaw, Bill and Toni Stone, Stan and Kathy Strong, Rhonda Sweeney, and Alan and Paula Tye.

In 2004, these loyal OSU alums created the ExxonMobil Alumni Controllers Fund, taking advantage of ExxonMobil’s 3-to-1 matching program, to create an endowed scholarship for OSU MBA students. Five years later, they took advantage of the Pickens Legacy Scholarship Match program, which when realized, will grow the fund to more than $2.5 million.

The fund is the largest endowed scholarship in Spears Business. In 2013, in addition to scholarships for MBA students it began assisting accounting students. To date, more than $230,000 has been awarded to 39 students from the scholarship fund. Also, the group is now funding a chair in ethics in Spears Business, and has made a donation to the new Business Building and the Eastin Center for Career Readiness. The group also supports other areas of OSU based on members’ individual passions.

Rob Haight, Craig Ireland and Brandi Surine were also honored at the banquet as Outstanding Young Alumni.