Arrell Gibson

Arrell Morgan Gibson was a historian and author specializing in the history of the state of Oklahoma. He was born in Pleasanton, KS on December 1, 1921. He earned degrees from Missouri Southern State College and the University of Oklahoma. He is best known for writing Oklahoma: A History of Five Centuries (University of Oklahoma Press 1965, 1981) and The Oklahoma Story (University of Oklahoma Press 1978). He died in Norman, OK on November 30, 1987.^[1] There have been two literary awards created in Gibson's honor. The Oklahoma Center For The Book grants its Arrell Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award annually to an Oklahoman for a body of literary work.^[2] The Indian Territory Posse of Westerners International awards a $500 cash prize annually to the year's best essay on the history of Native Americans.^[3]

Academic career

• B.A. - Missouri Southern State College - 1946
• M.A. - University of Oklahoma - 1948
• Ph.D. - University of Oklahoma - 1954
• Professor of History and Government - Phillips University, Enid, OK - 1949-1957
• Professor; George Lynn Cross Research Professor of History - University of Oklahoma - 1957-?
• Curator: Western History Collections - University of Oklahoma - 1957-1970
• Curator: Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History (then called the Stovall Museum) - University of Oklahoma - 1960-1987
• Visiting Professor - University of New Mexico - 1975
• Visiting Distinguished Professor; Graduate Studies Consultant - University of South China - 1985
• Goldwater Distinguished Professor of American Institutions - Arizona State University - 1986^[4]

Honors

• Research Grant - American Philosophical Society
• Research Grant - Duke Foundation
• Research Grant - University of Oklahoma
• Rockefeller Foundation Award
• Oklahoma Writer of the Year Award from the University of Oklahoma School of Journalism
• American Association for State and Local History Award of Merit for his book Wilderness Bonanza
• Oklahoma Hall of Fame Award
• University of Oklahoma's Distinguished Citation Award
• Honorary Doctorate - University of South China
• Honorary Doctorate - College of Idaho
• Board Member - Oklahoma Historical Society
• Board Member - Museum of the Great Plains
• Board Member - Mississippi Choctaw Cultural Center
• First President - Oklahoma Center for the Book
• President Elect - Western History Association^[5]

Books

• The Kickapoos (1963)
• The Life and Death of Colonel Albert Jennings Fountain (1965)
• Oklahoma: A History of Five Centuries (1965)
• The Chickasaws (1971) which placed second for a Pulitzer Prize
• Wilderness Bonanza (1972)
• The West in the Life of the Nation (1976)
• The Oklahoma Story (1978)
• The American Indian: Pre-History to the Present (1980)
• The Santa Fe and Taos Colonies: Age of the Muses 1900-1942 (1983)
• editor - The West Wind Blows: The Autobiography of Edward Everett Dale (1984)
• editor - Between Two Worlds: The Survival of Twentieth Century Indians (1986)^[6]

References

1. Arrell Gibson, Who Was He? at the Oklahoma Center for the Book
2. Past Winners
3. Gibson Award Requirements Archived May 9, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. at the Western History Association
4. Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture Archived July 29, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. at OSU
5. Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture
6. Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture