On Track

Published: April 3, 2008

STILLWATER — NASA recently awarded Oklahoma State University a $22 million grant to manage NASA's Interdisciplinary National Science Project Incorporating Research and Education Experience, also known as INSPIRE.

Through INSPIRE, OSU will help to develop K-12 students' educational opportunities in science-related areas. This grant, which will be awarded over five years, is the latest in OSU's longstanding partnership with NASA.

OSU President Burns Hargis, said, "Gaining this new partnership is a credit to OSU's NASA Education staff and our commitment to encourage young people to pursue educational opportunities and careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.”

OSU will provide administrative services for student recruitment, on-line resources, logistics and program evaluation at NASA facilities throughout the country.

OSU plans to manage the NASA INSPIRE project with partnerships established to recruit underrepresented and underserved populations into the NASA workforce pipeline.

TULSA — The NORDAM Group recently named Marc Overton as vice president of business aviation sales.

Overton will oversee NORDAM's business aircraft manufacturing sales responsibilities, align strategies across NORDAM's manufacturing divisions and direct customer service management.

Tray Siegfried, vice president of original equipment manufacturing and strategic resources, said, "His experience with our customers will play a crucial role as we continue to consolidate our marketing efforts across our manufacturing divisions.

Overton joined NORDAM's Texas Division in 1993 and served as director of marketing and sales.

Prior to joining NORDAM, Overton spent six years with Ten Cate Aerospace and Perkins Plastics in the sales and business development areas. Overton holds a bachelor's degree in Business Aviation from Texas Tech University.

Paul Hiel, an Oklahoma City air traffic controller, is one of 12 recently honored by the National Air Traffic Controllers Association for contributions to air safety in 2007.

Hiel was recently awarded the Archie League Medal of Safety in Chicago. The award is named for the first air traffic controller.

Hiel, who represented the southwest region, was recognized for helping in a critical flight assist April 10, 2007, in which he helped an aircraft land despite low hanging clouds.

NATCA President Patrick Forrey said, "While they may say that they were just doing their job — I can tell you that their actions demonstrated much more.”

The Kruse-Leake Collector Automobile Auction recently sold a 1959 Cadillac series 62 convertible for a world record price of $216,000.

Other top selling cars were a 1963 Mercury Marauder S-55 at $160,000, a 1974 Pontiac Trans Am Super Duty $80,500, a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 at $73,000 and a 1970 Ford Mustang Mach 1 428 CJ at $65,500. Total sales were $4.2 million with total bids of $7.1 million.

Richard Sevenoaks, president of Leake Auction Company, said, "We saw the highest attendance we've ever had on Saturday.” Leake Auction was established in Muskogee in 1964 by Jim Leake Sr. as one of the first car auctions in the country.

From Staff Reports

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