Dr. Clane Alan Kirtley

Class of 1952

Dr. Clane A. Kirtley, who had a Doctorate degree in Education, was a teacher, coach, and administrator in Oklahoma schools for many years. He served as Dean of Students, boys basketball coach, and assistant football coach, among other roles at Northern Oklahoma College (NOC) in Tonkawa.

Clane was an outstanding athlete in football and track at Perry, NOC, and Southwestern Oklahoma State University. His college degrees were Associate of Business degree at NOC, B.S. at Southwestern, and M.S. and Ph.D. at Oklahoma State University. He taught and coached girls and boys basketball for two years at Delhi, Oklahoma, before being hired at Tonkawa High School to teach and coach basketball and assist in football. In 1960, NOC hired him as an instructor and a coach. It had been his longtime dream to return to NOC. He and his wife were dorm parents of a boys’ dorm for four years.

He retired from NOC in 1996 but remained as part-time counselor for the learning disabled, a job he loved and found very rewarding.

He was involved in many projects and and programs in Tonkawa, including being summer recreation director, helping design and build the Lion’s Club Baseball Park, working on and managing the NOC Golf Course, and teaching a young adult Sunday School class at the Tonkawa First Christian Church.