Background:
Dr. Wade McCoy is a family practice doctor in the Oklahoma City area. He has been at the Gilbert Medical Center for 15 years. He is from rural Western Oklahoma originally.

Main Focus:
Title of Presentation-- "On Being Diverse before Diversity was Cool"

Offerings:
The presentation focuses around the relationship of Dr Henry Kirkland Jr, an African American retired professor for SWOSU, and FK "Skeet" Carney of Atoka Oklahoma. Kirkland found himself alone at the age of 13 in the small segregated town in the late 1940s. He began to work for Skeet Carney, a white druggist, in downtown Atoka. Carney instilled values and invested a great deal of time in the young man called Kirk at the time. He trusted Kirk to make the weekly deposits at the bank. Carney would also attend Kirkland's basketball games at his high school, being the only white face in the crowd. When Kirkland graduated, Carney put him on a bus and promised he would help him get through college. In fact, he helped pay his way through college and remained a lifelong friend. Their relationship was very unusual due to the race difference in that time frame. But, Mr. Carney apparently did not allow the difference to interfere with his desire to help this timid young man through life. I met Dr. Kirkland in 1986 while taking his General Biology course at SWOSU. Dr. Kirkland pulled me aside and asked me if I had ever considered going to medical school. I had never considered such since I was from a small rural town. With his help, I did go to medical school and enjoy a thriving medical practice today because of the encouragement of Dr. Kirkland. As we began to do research for the book, we discovered a most unusual fact about our heritage. Dr. Kirkland's grandfather, Henry Kirkland (born 1851) was a young slave boy having been separated from his parents at the age of about 9 years old. He received his freedom at the age of 14 when the war was over. In 1880, he is found living with his family in a small town in Barbour County Alabama. Census records show he lived in Williamston Alabama. It turns out, that is the very town my great great grandmother was raised many years earlier by her uncle Green Beauchamp, one of the largest slave owners in Alabama history. So, this entire story comes out of the fertile soil of Southern Alabama. In my presentation, I first tell the story of my professor helping me. I then tell the example of respecting diversity with the story of Skeet and Kirk. I then reveal that Kirk is my professor, Dr Henry Kirkland.

Publications and awards:
1. Co-author of novel "A Rainbow in the Dark"--a full length literary fiction novel based on the life of Dr. Henry Kirkland.
2. Author of "Today I Saw a Man", an article in Christian Ethics Today
3. Graduated Summa Cum Laude from SWOSU
4. Graduated with distinction as a member of the honor medical society Alpha Omega Alpha from the College of Medicine at the University of Oklahoma.