Three Ponca City Graduates Receive $1,000 Phelps Scholarships at NOC

Three $1,000 scholarships were awarded this fall to Ponca City High School (Po-Hi) graduates as part of the newly amended William W. and Dorotha L. Phelps Scholarship Fund.

Brandon Jones, Po-Hi 2022 graduate, is an entering freshman majoring in Business Administration; Austin Payne, 2022 Po-Hi graduate, is an entering freshman majoring in Business Management-Entrepreneurship Studies; and Antonio Perez, 2022 Po-Hi graduate, is an entering freshman majoring in Business Administration.

Ponca City High School (Po-Hi) graduates and Northern Oklahoma College (NOC) alumni William W. (Bill) Phelps and Dorotha L. (Susie) Bristow amended their endowment to the NOC Foundation (NOCF) to begin offering scholarships to qualified Po-Hi graduates attending NOC Tonkawa this fall semester.

Even though they now reside 300 miles south in the Dallas area they decided to give back to the community where they grew up.

The William W. and Dorotha L. Phelps Educational Loan and Scholarship fund, originally established in 2011 and amended in 2014 and again this summer, will now provide up to 10 (ten) $1,000 scholarships to deserving students majoring in engineering or business. Recipients must be a graduate of Ponca City High School and enrolled full-time at NOC Tonkawa.

“We strongly believe in the mission of the two-year college and are excited to help the first three recipients of our scholarship,” the couple said. “We are excited to provide Po-Hi graduates the same educational opportunities we had.”

Bill and Susie met in the first grade and are 1956 graduates of Po-Hi and 1958 NOC graduates where they both received associate degrees, Bill in engineering and Susie in business administration. They continued their education at Oklahoma State University where both earned bachelor’s degrees, Bill in mechanical engineering and Susie in business administration. Bill later received his master’s degree in petroleum engineering from The University of Oklahoma. In 2017, Bill Phelps was inducted into the Northern Oklahoma College Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame.

NOCF executive director Sheri Snyder stated, “NOC is grateful and blessed to have alumni such as Bill and Susie Phelps who are continuing on their tradition and commitment to higher education in Oklahoma and to their alma maters by establishing a scholarship to benefit students of academic merit in engineering and business.”

Interested students should apply by completing the online scholarship application through the NOC scholarship office at www.noc.edu/scholarships.

The NOC Foundation serves as a private fundraising organization for NOC, as designated by the NOC Board of Regents. Its primary purpose is to enhance the educational opportunities and the overall environment of NOC through scholarship and program support.