NEWS
NORMAN, OKLA. – The University of Oklahoma will award honorary degrees to two outstanding individuals in recognition of their extraordinary achievements and generous service to others.
Receiving honorary degrees are:
The university will confer honorary degrees for both recipients during its 2025 Commencement ceremony scheduled for 7 p.m., Friday, May 9, at the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Oklahoma.
“We are honored to celebrate these outstanding individuals whose remarkable achievements and selfless dedication have had a profound influence on the world around them,” said OU President Joseph Harroz Jr. “Through their leadership and service, they have inspired countless lives, and it is with great pride that we acknowledge their contributions with the university’s highest recognition.”
Thomas H. McCasland Jr.
After earning his bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering from OU, Tom McCasland served active duty with the U.S. Navy Civil Engineering Corps for two years before joining his family’s oil business. He later founded and led multiple successful companies, including Mack Energy Company and Oil Country Trucking Company, becoming a key figure in Oklahoma’s energy sector.
McCasland’s leadership roles extend far beyond business. He has served on numerous boards spanning the nonprofit, education and private sectors, including the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association, BancFirst Corp., the Oklahoma Heritage Association (now the Oklahoma Hall of Fame), OU’s Mewbourne College of Earth and Energy and Gallogly College of Engineering, the Duncan Chamber of Commerce, and the Dallas Opera. His dedication to education and community service has been recognized with numerous honors, including the Trailblazer Award from the Mewbourne College of Earth and Energy, membership in the Gallogly College of Engineering’s Distinguished Graduates Society and induction into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 2014.
McCasland’s contributions to OU have played a vital role in the university’s ongoing success through his decades of dedicated service and philanthropy. His far-reaching impact includes involvement with the OU Alumni Association and support for key institutions, including Bizzell Memorial Library, Sarkeys Energy Center, and the Gallogly and Mewbourne Colleges. As a member of the OU Foundation Board of Trustees, McCasland helped guide the university’s financial and strategic growth. Beyond campus, he extended his leadership to Beta Theta Pi, serving locally and nationally. A true role model, he established a matching scholarship program and offered crucial support and guidance in the creation of the Jerry Holmes Leadership Program for Engineering and Scientists at OU.
Dr. Gladys B. West
Dr. West launched her career in the U.S. Navy in 1956 at the Naval Proving Ground, now known as the Naval Support Facility Dahlgren. During her more than four decades of service, West gained the admiration of her colleagues for her skill in calculating complex mathematical equations in programming computers. She rose through the ranks at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division while continuing to work on satellite geodesy and other satellite measurements that contributed to the accuracy of GPS. Today, almost everyone is impacted by her work, as GPS is a ubiquitous feature on smartphones, vehicles and numerous other applications. She later became project manager for the radar altimetry data processing project of Seasat, the first satellite designed for remote sensing of Earth’s oceans.
In recent years, West has been hailed as one of the so-called “hidden figures” who conducted computing for the U.S. military in the era before electronic systems. She has earned numerous honors for her contributions, including induction into the Air Force Space and Missile Pioneers Hall of Fame, the National Black College Alumni Hall of Fame and the Surface Navy Association’s Surface Warfare Hall of Fame. West was the first woman to receive the Prince Philip Medal from the United Kingdom’s Royal Academy of Engineering, the organization’s highest individual honor.
She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mathematics from Virginia State University, a Master of Public Administration from OU and a doctoral degree in public administration from Virginia Tech, the latter following her retirement in 1998.
For more information on OU’s May Commencement ceremonies, visit ou.edu/commencement or email commencement@ou.edu.
About the University of Oklahoma
Founded in 1890, the University of Oklahoma is a public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. As the state’s flagship university, OU serves the educational, cultural, economic and health care needs of the state, region and nation. For more information about the university, visit www.ou.edu.
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