Jeff and Kathy Madison, Chick-fil-A Owner/Operators, to Deliver Minter Lecture Oct. 7

Jeff and Kathy Madison will deliver the 2019 Minter Lecture Monday, Oct. 7, in the Tulsa Royalties Auditorium of OBU’s Bailey Business Center. The event will take place from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. The title of the Madisons’ presentation is, “Patrol Base to Marketplace.” The Madisons are the restaurant operators and local franchise owners of Shawnee’s Chick-fil-A, located at 4637 N. Kickapoo Ave.

The Minter Lectureship was underwritten by 1940 OBU graduate Lloyd G. Minter of Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and the annual series began in 1991. Minter earned a law degree at the University of Oklahoma and served as counsel for Boone, Smith, Davis and Hurst of Tulsa. He likewise built a successful 35-year career with Phillips Petroleum, rising to the position of senior vice president and general counsel before retiring in 1978. He served five terms as an OBU trustee and two terms as a trustee of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary before his death in 2013 at age 94.

The Minter Lectureship in Business was established out of Minter’s desire to help OBU students broaden their understanding of the business community. The Minter Lectureship is designed to provide training specifically for ministry students in the history of the American economic system as well as to help all students understand and appreciate the business and professional community. The Minter Lectureship promotes proper management of personal finances, as well as a better business knowledge for the institutions where they will one day lead and serve.

Jeff and Kathy Madison are both from Harrah, Oklahoma, and 1989 graduates of East Central University, respectively earning degrees in business administration and elementary education. Jeff went on to earn an MBA from Syracuse University.

Jeff retired from the United States Army as a colonel after a 26-year-career. Through his years in the U.S. Army, he took his family to duty stations in Fort Knox, Fort Polk, Fort Harrison, Fort Bragg, Fort Leavenworth, Fort Sill, the Pentagon, Republic of South Korea, Germany, Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt and Israel. While serving on active duty in 2014, Jeff was selected to become the first owner/operator of Chick-fil-A Shawnee. He now serves on the OBU community advisory board, OBU College of Business executive board and the board for Shawnee Forward.

Kathy has worked as an elementary, middle and high school teacher in both home and public schools, with more than 16 years of teaching and coaching experience. She is also a mentor with Lydia’s Lamp, a women’s mentoring group at OBU that matches female business majors with professional businesswomen for one-on-one mentoring and networking. She also participates in and supports OBU’s Women of Vision, a giving circle that brings women together to create a valuable financial source to enhance the university’s mission through funding projects which meet critical needs on campus. She also serves on the board for Mission Shawnee.

The Madisons are excited and humbled to present the Minter Lecture.

“We enjoy spending time with OBU students,” Jeff said. “We are honored for the invitation and the opportunity the Minter Lecture provides to share our journey as a family serving in the military and now in the marketplace. We believe the Great Commission applies regardless of context. We want to inspire students to be bold in their faith regardless of their vocation.”

In May of this year, the Madisons and their family provided the funds for the new collaborative learning space located on the first floor of the Bailey Business Center. This space was created to be a place where students can refresh themselves between classes while collaborating with other students and faculty. The dedication ceremony took place May 10, where Madison shared his thoughts about why collaboration is so important to him and the vision he sees for this new space for OBU business students.