There is no better person to lead that effort than McLain’s most successful graduate, Mike Turpen.
Turpen
is a former Muskogee County district attorney, former state Attorney
General, author and TV star with offices in OKC and Tulsa. Turpen proved
his mettle as a teacher by counseling Oklahoma City high school boys to
learn the words and the value of Rudyard Kipling’s poem, “If.”
Let’s
rename his alma mater “Turpen High” and put the loquacious lawyer to
work teaching a seminar for all freshman boys on “If.” “If you can fill
the unforgiving minute / With 60 seconds’ worth of distance run / Yours
is the earth and everything that’s in it / And — what is more — you’ll
be a man, my son!”
—Virgina Blue Jeans Jenner, Wagoner
This article appears in May 16-22, 2012.