Weatherford, OK – A former Elk City teacher and a long-time Elk City businessman and civic leader recognized new alumni at the recent Southwestern Oklahoma State University fall graduation ceremony in Weatherford.

Sue Ball, Basil Weatherly, and other members of the SWOSU Alumni Association gave the newly-minted graduates alumni pins as they walked across the Pioneer Event Center stage.

Fresh out of college at SWOSU, Ball taught science at Elk City High School for four years beginning in 1980.

She stepped away from teaching to have children but later earned a master’s degree with a Biological Sciences specialization from SWOSU.

After teaching at Redlands Community College in El Reno for a semester, Ball joined the full-time SWOSU faculty in 1991 where she taught Biology and Human Anatomy.  For 20 years, she was the only professor who taught the anatomy course.

After 30 years on the faculty, Ball retired from SWOSU in 2021.

Weatherly is an ECHS graduate who earned a bachelor's degree from SWOSU in 1975.

That same year, Weatherly bought Elk City's RCA store from Wendell Powell at Broadway & Jefferson, which he operated for many years.

Weatherly also helped establish the Elk City Public Schools Foundation, Inc., and he's served as President of the Elk City Chamber of Commerce, the Elk City Arts Council, and the Elk City Rotary Club.

Weatherly was also elected to two terms on the City Commission, and he served on the Elk City Airport Commission, Cemetery Commission, and Planning Commission.

He's also a Past President of the SWOSU Alumni Association and has served on the Association’s Board of Directors for more than 50 years.

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