August 29, 2005

Adair’s Gay to serve on GRDA Board of Directors

Vinita -- Gerald "Buck" Gay (Adair) will join the Grand River Dam Authority Board of Directors in September as the designee for the Oklahoma Association of Electric Cooperatives (OAEC). Larry Watkins, OAEC general manager, appointed Gay to the post earlier this week.

Also a member of the Northeast Oklahoma Electric Cooperative Board of Trustees, Gay will represent GRDA’s electric cooperative customers as he serves in the OAEC’s ex officio board post.

“I trust you will find [Mr. Gay] to be an excellent board member with the skills, intelligence and objectivity necessary to do a fine job” wrote Watkins in a letter to GRDA Chairman David Chernicky. Gay will replace the late James W. Perry (Cleveland) on the GRDA Board.

A retired educator, Gay served 17 years with the Northeast Technology Center in Pryor, the last two as superintendent. He earned Bachelor and Master degrees in education from Northeastern State University and completed post graduate studies at Oklahoma State University and the University of Tulsa. A graduate of Leadership Oklahoma, he is also a member of the American and Oklahoma Vocational Associations. He is a past president of the Pryor Rotary Club and Pryor Chamber of Commerce and has served on the boards of the Mayes County American Cancer Society and the community sentencing program in Claremore. He currently serves on the board of Thunderbird Challenge Inc., which supports the Thunderbird Youth Academy in Pryor.

“GRDA is fortunate to have someone of Mr. Gay’s credentials as a member of our board and I look forward to working with him,” said GRDA Chief Executive Officer Kevin Easley. “His strong financial abilities as the former leader of Northeast Technology Center plus his history of strong community involvement in Mayes County should be reassuring to our customers and employees. I know he’ll do a great job."

The GRDA Board of Directors is comprised of seven members, with representatives for each customer class: municipals, electric cooperatives and industrials, as well as the GRDA lakes area. Two at-large representatives also sit on the board. Appointments to the board are made by the Oklahoma Governor, who selects three members, as well as the Speaker of the Oklahoma State House of Representatives and President Pro Tempore of the Oklahoma State Senate. The remaining board positions are ex officio. Mr. Gay is filling one of those positions, serving as designee for the OAEC general manager. The other ex officio position belongs to the executive director of the Municipal Electric Systems of Oklahoma (MESO) or his designee.