Oklahoma State University
Diversity Hall of Fame
Thursday, October 12, 2017 | 5:30 P.M.
ConocoPhillips OSU Alumni Center | Stillwater, Oklahoma
LLOYD D. RANSOM
In May 1952, Mr. Lloyd Ransom graduated from Booker T Washington High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma. As a senior, he was President of the Student Council and Captain of the Hornets’ Football Team. On graduation, Lloyd was denied acceptance to any of the major Universities within the State of Oklahoma, despite a stellar academic and extracurricular resume. Lloyd was offered and accepted a football scholarship at Central State College in Wilberforce, Ohio. In September 1954, Lloyd began his college career to pursue a degree in chemistry. He was on the Dean’s List and a member of the Honor Society at Central State College, but he left college after his sophomore year due to financial restraints. However, he completed his entire freshman and sophomore curriculum to become eligible for upper division standing when the circumstances would allow him to resume his college career.
In 1954, Mr. Ransom relinquished his draft deferment status and volunteered to enter the United States Armed Forces. After completing basic training in Fort Bliss, Texas, he was deployed to the Far East Command and assigned to an Antiaircraft Artillery Company in Itazuka, Japan. He was promoted to the rank of Sargent and became an Antiaircraft Gun Commander, protecting the skies over the Itazuke Air Base. Mr. Ransom served his entire Army Tour-Of-Duty in The Far East Command and was Honorably Discharged in 1956.
Mr. Ransom returned to the States, determined to resume his college education. Due to the United States Supreme Court ruling in the Brown v. Board of Education Case that declared “state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional,” the State of Oklahoma integrated its State Universities. In 1956, Lloyd was admitted to Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma. In 1958 Mr. Ransom received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemistry. He married his college sweetheart, Archie Stevenson.
1958-61: Mr. Ransom was employed as a Research Chemist by North American Aviation in Canoga Park, California. He was responsible for investigating chemical reactions of various elements and compounds of inorganic systems at elevated temperatures.
Co-Authored 3-Publications:
- The Heat of Fusion of Bismuth Trichloride – A Comparison of Calorimetric and Cryoscopic, of Physical Chemistry, No.64 a960.
- Bismuth/Tribromide & Bismuth/Triiodide Systems, J. Of Physical Chemistry, No. 66, 1962.
- Magnetic Susceptibilities of Molten Bismuth/Bismuth Iodide Solution. Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol. 38, No. 7, 1963.
1961-66: He was employed as a Chemical Engineer by Hughes Aircraft Company in Culver City, California
Responsibilities: The research and development of advanced technologies for the deposition of metals and metal alloys onto conductive and non-conductive surfaces for protective and memory storages applications. Publication: Journal of The Electrochemical Society, Vol. 111, No. 12, 1964
1966-70: He was employed as the Manager of Materials Research by Lockheed Electronics in Los Angeles California: Responsibilities: Establishing a Research Group to investigate the feasibility and economy of thin film memory elements for computers and other memory applications.
1970-74: Mr. Ransom was Co-founder and Vice President of Nemonics Data Systems, Inc. in Denver, Colorado. A Computer Memory Product Company, specializing in supplying Plated Wire Thin Film Memory Systems as an evolutionary replacement of the existing memory systems at the time.
1974-83: He was Director of Corporate Engineering for Storage Technology Corporation in Louisville, Colorado.
Responsibilities: Manage and Direct all functions which provide support and services to Corporate Engineering Departments and Field Engineering Operations.
1983-Retirement: Director of Corporate Quality Assurance for Storage Technology Corporation in Colorado and it’s many subsidiaries throughout the United States.
Living on the Oklahoma State University Campus as a Black Undergraduate Student from 1956-1958 was challenging and discouraging at times, but what was most discouraging is upon graduation with a degree in chemistry, Lloyd could not get an interview from any of the companies that came to the campus to recruit and hire newly graduating students. He was hoping to be employed as a chemist at one of the many Oklahoma oil companies, but that did not happen. Undeterred from his dream, Lloyd followed his wife to California where she had an internship. In California both Archie and Lloyd were able to secure employment within their respective fields of training.
Mr. Ransom’s experiences among the first Blacks to graduate from Oklahoma State University laid the foundation for his battle for Fair Housing in Torrance California, Employment Equality, and more recently taking on a major Oklahoma oil producer on behalf of his wife’s land inheritance.
The OSU experience made Lloyd a better man, determined that his children would achieve a college education. To date all of Lloyd and Archie’s 3 children and 6 of 7 grandchildren have completed college or are currently attending college, his seventh grandchild is 12-years-old.
ARCHIE STEVENSON-RANSOM
In May 1954, Archie Stevenson graduated from Douglass High School in Ardmore, Oklahoma. She received a Scholarship
from Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois. She entered the Nutrition and Food Services Programs with interest in Health Services. She transferred to Oklahoma State University and graduated in 1958 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Food Nutrition and Institutional Management. After graduation, Archie accepted a Dietetic internship at the Veterans Administration Hospital (ADA Rated) in Los Angeles, California.
Mrs. Ransom’s first career employment was during the year of 1960, as a Dietitian with The Los Angeles County Hospital in California.
Her specific assignments were:
- Administrative: Planned and coordinated meal services for approximately 3000 patients. Planned, ordered, prepared and served 500 special diets 3- time daily. Supervised 20 employees assigned to an operation of the Special Diet Kitchen.
- Clinical: Conducted out-patient sessions for patients who needed special dietary assistance. Instructed out-patients on weight reduction diets, geriatric programs, and the planning of diets for their allergic and anaemic children.
- Therapeutic: Coordinated special diets. Instructed patients on special diets while hospitalized and gave discharge diet instructions for patients to follow at home. Helped patients to maintain and improve upon nutritional status on diabetic diets. Provided diabetic instructions to patients hospitalized and to those returning to the hospital for clinical visits.
- Teaching: Planned and presented a 2-hour lecture twice weekly to 165 students involved in the study of foods, nutrition, and nursing. Planned audio-visual lectures and demonstrations in foods and nutrition.
In 1967, Archie was employed as a Dietary Instructor by the Los Angeles County Schools System. Her responsibilities were to Instruct Food Service workers and individuals desiring to gain employment in hospitals, restaurants, school food services and other establishments requiring trained food service employees. Her training curriculum included:
1) Safety Techniques in Handling Institutional Equipment; 2) Health & Hygiene of Food Handlers; 3) Sanitary Practices in Food Handling 4) Preparation of Fresh Produce; 5) Cooking Principles & Techniques; 6) Nutrition and Food Planning.
The family relocated to Denver, Colorado in 1970. Mrs. Ransom took a brief leave from her career to manage a family of three growing children. She resumed her career in 1976 and was employed by Fort Logan Mental health Center in Denver, Colorado as the Director of Dietary Services. Her assigned responsibilities were to direct and supervise thirty-two (32) Food Services and Dietary employees in a 250-bed psychiatric inpatient facility…producing approximately 300,000 meals annually.
Oklahoma State University was where Archie met her husband Lloyd, but she remembers unpleasant and tense racial times being on the campus. The Ransom’s took those experiences and dedicated their lives to making sure this was not the reality of their children and grandchildren. Their greatest desire was to set positive examples and serve as role models for their children and others. Their children have gone on to attend the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, Colorado College, UCLA, Stanford and UC Berkeley, their grandchildren have attended Georgetown University, Loyola Marymount University, Robert Morris University, University of North Texas, and Columbia University. This all stems from resilience and their unwavering commitment to education and change.
