Okmulgee County Commissioner District 3

My story

My father was a custom combiner who harvested wheat from Texas to Canada for 13 years. The combining company was sold in 1958 and the Richardson family moved to Clinton, Oklahoma, when I was three years old. My work history began in grade school when I delivered newspapers on my bicycle and sacked groceries at the local Safeway. During the summer months and holidays of my adolescence and prior to joining the US Navy in 1973, I worked on highway heavy construction projects, dams, and flood control projects.

I spent four years in the US Navy, serving on the USS Midway during the Saigon Evacuation in April of 1975. Due to my service during the evacuation, I am recognized by the VA as a Blue Water Viet Nam veteran. While on the USS Midway, I had the opportunity to see various Pacific and Southeast Asian countries and learned to appreciate the cultures. After my tour on the USS Midway, I was transferred to the USS Saratoga that was home-ported Florida. The ship spent time in Virginia before the Task Force left for Europe, allowing me to experience yet another part of the globe. Reading extensively and travelling throughout Europe presented many opportunities including visiting the summer residence of Pope John Paul VI.

After being honorably discharged, I used the GI Bill along with roughnecking on drilling rigs to pay my way through OSU Stillwater. I had the opportunity to graduate in three years but opted to enroll another semester to concentrate on aviation where I obtained my twin engine, twin engine commercial, and IFR licenses and enjoyed aerobatics. During that time, I became the President of the Flying Aggies. I graduated in May of 1981 with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and effectively minors in Geology and Aviation. I then lived in Okmulgee until 1983, at which time I made my home in Henryetta, Okmulgee County District 3.

I am proud to have worked and managed for Richardson Construction Company. I was the petroleum land man, as well as the oil & gas drilling, completion, and production manager. Prior to oil & gas activities, RCC also built 120 miles of two-lane and four-lane highways, the 1st Phase of the Port of Catoosa, an Oklahoma powerplant foundation, and over 200 SCS flood control projects and dams, primarily in Oklahoma. Okmulgee Lake was built by RCC in 1975 while I was off the coast of South Viet Nam.

The Richardson family businesses evolved from highway heavy and dam construction into surface coal mining in the late 1970s. Due to the oil & gas price crash of the early 1980s, I began concentrating on the coal mining side of the family business, ultimately becoming president in 1985. During my time as president, the mining company opened and operated Pollyanna #2 through #9. While negotiating many long-term sales agreements with powerplants in Oklahoma, I learned how the majority of electricity in all of the state of Oklahoma is produced and transmitted throughout the state. I have dealt with every major electrical utility company operating in the state of Oklahoma. In 1996, my partner and I bought my father’s companies and formed our own. On his deathbed in 1997, my father’s wish was for me to leave the mining business completely. I began the transition the same year. Even though I began liquidating my ownership in the mining business, I continued consulting for the Oklahoma mining industry through 2019.

During my years as president of the mining companies, I was a co-founder and partner with Dr. Brent Davis of a home health care company based in Henryetta, Oklahoma.

I created a telecommunications company and studied, learned, designed, built, and sold telecommunications towers all while continuing in the mining industry. Beginning with virtually nothing, I was able to navigate the legal and regulatory landscape while working with local governments to accomplish my goals of designing, permitting, building, and operating telecommunications towers in the state of Oklahoma.

I sold the assets of the telecommunication company in December of 2005. Thereafter, I was recruited to become a pipeline inspector. Throughout the pipeline years, I worked as a pipeline inspector, pig-runner, certified welding inspector, and assisted in the repair of numerous major pipelines in the Central United States. During the pipeline years, I transitioned to become a right-of-way agent. From right-of-way agent, I worked my way to senior right-of-way agent and ultimately became the project manager of numerous major pipeline projects in the Eastern United States, while still consulting with the Oklahoma mining industry.

The oil crash of 2018 caused significant nationwide upheavals in the pipeline industry. At such time, I became exclusively self-employed, though I had remained self-employed in some capacity since 1981. That’s where I am today, focusing on entrepreneurship in various fields and moving forward every day. I intend to continue my streak of business management successes as your County Commissioner of Okmulgee County District 3. 

I respectfully ask that you vote for me for Okmulgee County Commissioner District 3.