TCC Scholarship Announced in Honor of Long Serving TCC Regent

Tulsa Community College has announced the creation of a $25,000 endowed academic scholarship to honor Regent Martin D. Garber, Jr., who has served on the TCC Board of Regents for 27 years.

TCC President and CEO Leigh B. Goodson, Ph.D. made the scholarship announcement at a reception honoring Garber on May 23 at the Thomas K. McKeon Center for Creativity at the TCC Metro Campus. The scholarship is made possible by the TCC Foundation. Garber’s final meeting as a TCC Regent will be June 15, 2017.

“Regent Garber has been an advocate for education and helped TCC to become the strong institution it is today,” Goodson said. “This scholarship to support students reflects the commitment Garber has shown to students and TCC for the past 27 years."

Garber has been instrumental in overseeing the development of TCC into the third largest college or university in Oklahoma with a focus on student success and the creation of Tulsa Achieves, a gap-funding program serving more than 15,000 students since 2007.

After being appointed in 1990, he was reappointed by three different governors. During his tenure, TCC had three presidents and changed its named from Tulsa Junior College to Tulsa Community College.

Former TCC Presidents Tom McKeon and Dean VanTrease and Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education Chancellor Glen D. Johnson addressed Garber’s contributions to higher education.

“Regent Garber has been there every step of the way for nearly 30 years as TCC made its mark in higher education,” Johnson said. “His history is entwined with the great history of TCC.”

Garber helped mold TCC’s dedication to student life with the completion of fitness centers on all four of the College’s main campuses. He was instrumental in managing and directing the construction and later expansion of the College’s VanTrease Performing Arts Center for Education, home to the Signature Symphony at TCC, and named for the institution’s second president, Dean VanTrease, Ph.D.

Professionally, he is president of Garber & Associates, a public and government relations consulting firm he founded in 2001. Prior to founding his firm, Garber was manager of political affairs for Phillips Petroleum Company, a Fortune 100 company with operations throughout the United States and abroad.

He and his wife, Karen, live in Bartlesville.