A 1966 Woodward High School graduate has been named as one of the 2010 inductees into the Oklahoma State University Alumni Hall of Fame.
Marilynn Benbrook Thoma and her husband Carl are two of four OSU alumni who will be inducted into the hall of fame at a 7 p.m. on Feb. 19 at the ConocoPhillips OSU Alumni Center in Stillwater.
Thoma is the daughter of Pauline and Doug Benbrook, who still call Woodward home.
After graduating from Woodward in 1966, she went on Oklahoma State University, where she was president of the college’s student council, a writer for the Daily O’Collegian, and a member of Mortar Board before graduating in 1970. Four years later she graduated from Stanford’s graduate school of business with her Master’s in Business Administration.
Since 1974, she and her husband have lived in the Chicago area. They currently live in Kenilworth, Ill., and are the owners and proprietors of Van Duzer Vineyards, which is a winery located in Oregon’s Williamette Valley.
Thoma oversees the marketing efforts for the winery, including the development of wine labels, for which she has earned numerous design awards.
In the early days of her marketing career she worked as a brand manager at Quaker Oats, where from 1974 to 1982, she oversaw the marketing and advertising for Cap’n Crunch cereals and Aunt Jemima pancake syrup. Then from 1983 to 1986, she served as the vice president of marketing for Cellular Network and Proxy Communications.
In addition to managing a busy career and raising two children, who both recently graduated from Stanford, Thoma said she has found time to give back to her area communities with involvement in a number of non-profit organizations in the Chicago area, including the Chicago Humanities Festival, the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, and the Women’s Board of Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Giving back is something that is very important to both Thoma and her husband, who have also made it a priority to donate to their alma mater and even endow a professorship in management at OSU’s College of Human Environmental Sciences.
Because of their experience as proprietors of a winery she said her husband has also served in “an advisory capacity” in the entrepreneurship program at OSU’s business school and that together they “contributed the seed funds” to help the university’s hotel and restaurant management program organize an Oklahoma wine forum in April 2009. She said the forum was successful and is due “to be repeated in 2011.”
Thoma said she believes in supporting the university because the school helped them both to get “a good start” in life and so their contributions to the school are “just one small way to thank them for their support.”
But beyond that, she noted that by supporting an educational institution, “it sets the stage for young people of today to improve their lives; ... you see your support enable somebody else to reach a higher level.”
In general, she said she believes in giving back because “I don’t think a person can be complete until they’ve contributed in some way to the common good.
“And the more you give, the more rewarding the whole experience is,” she said.
Thoma said she is “very much so” looking forward to being inducted into OSU alumni hall of fame.
“I’m tickled and deeply honored to be selected by my alma mater for this recognition,” she said, noting that she knows “the people they select are those that over a lifetime of work and community activity have reached a level of respect by their peers.”
Thoma added, “It meant a lot to Carl and I to be named in the same year,” especially since the couple met at OSU.
“They don’t generally have couples and for them to recognize us both individually and what we’ve been able to do together is special,” she said.
When asked about her daughter’s achievement, Thoma’s mother Pauline Benbrook said that she is “real proud of her, of course.”
Benbrook noted that she is proud of her son-in-law as well and what the two have accomplished together.
“They’ve been two outstanding people,” she said. “I think they’ve done a lot of good for education.”
