impressive host at these events, enticing airport was built in 1932 and renamed fifty businesses to set up in or relocate to Will Rogers World Airport in 1941. Oklahoma City in his first three years with Draper’s special interest in aviation the Chamber. In 1928 alone, he brought in continued on to other important aircraft- 330 companies. related developments, most famous of Draper led other successful efforts in which was Tinker Air Force Base. In the his early Chamber years, most notable late 1930s, he learned from an associate of which was renaming the city. Prior in Washington, D.C. that U.S. Army Air to 1923, when the state capital had still Corps officials were looking to build a officially been known as “Oklahoma new Midwestern air depot to serve as a Station,” Draper could not accept that manufacturing site and point of service the word “city” was nowhere to be found for military aircraft traveling to and from in a name designating a metropolis that Stanley Draper, left, and Dudley C. Sharp at had about 90,000 residents. He initiated the dedication of the Tinker Air Force Base a petition and, along with 25,000 Hospital on January 23, 1960. signatures, submitted it to state officials The Federal Aviation Administration named its Aeronautical Center in honor of Mike Monroney who agreed to change the name. He in 1958. Photo by Bob Newkirk. Courtesy subsequently pressured federal officials Oklahoma Historical Society. until they, too, agreed to do the same on An aerial view of Lake Hefner, originally known as to build membership in the Chamber, the city’s official postmark. the Bluff Creek Reservoir, on May 18, 1948. The secure funding, and create collaborative With the passing of Chamber need for a second water source for Oklahoma development opportunities in the city’s President Ed Overholser in 1930, Draper City prompted a bond issue of nearly $7 million and the purchase of a large section of land in commercial, industrial, and urban planning became the managing director and was northwest Oklahoma City. Photo by Bill Johnson. sectors. He quickly learned, however, that by then in a position to lead major civic Courtesy Oklahoma Historical Society Oklahoma the Chamber’s lack of a dining room at projects, the earliest of which included Publishing Company Photography Collection. the time made his tasks difficult. In prior Oklahoma City’s first municipal airport. the east and west coasts. Determined to years, the Chamber had been reliant on Since his days of military service in make Oklahoma City the designation the banquet room of the Huckins Hotel for World War I, Draper had been an early of the proposed facility, Draper teamed luncheons, and Draper soon found it was proponent of aviation, realizing the up with local civic leaders Edward K. not always available when he needed it future necessity of a public airline facility Gaylord, inducted to the Oklahoma Hall to be. With assistance from hotel owner in the city. Using funds generated by a of Fame in 1930, Wilbur E. Hightower, Joe Huckins, he succeeded in acquiring a public relations campaign in 1931 he Tom Braniff, and Frank Buttram, inducted to new banquet room and began organizing purchased a 640-acre tract of land in the the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1940, and luncheons weekly. Draper proved an southwestern part of the city, where the with his Chamber associates organized the 52