By Dax Benway, Senior Reporter
Gary Tucker has returned as a professor in the business department at Northwestern Oklahoma State University.
Tucker is going into his 20th year as a professor and has been to a handful of schools.
He first started as instructor of business and department chair at Oklahoma City Community College in Oklahoma City. In January 2009, Tucker accepted a teaching job at Northwestern.
Shortly after, he moved on and took a job at Lone Star College located in Houston, Texas.
Tucker spent the majority of his teaching career at Lone Star University before going to Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas.
This would eventually lead up to Tucker coming back to Northwestern after many years.
“Me and my wife always wanted to come back,” Tucker said. “We enjoyed Alva so much, and our time was very limited the first time we were here.
“When I found out there was an opportunity to get my old job back at this university, I visited with Dr. Garrett Lahr, the head chair in the division of business, and administration. After the long process, I am happy to be back.”
With years of experience at multiple universities, Tucker said he never lost his purpose of why he loves to be a teacher and why he wants to continue to teach.
“Being able to take the knowledge I have gained through my experiences of being a businessman and being able to take it to the classroom setting and educate young adults over it is very rewarding for me,” Tucker said. “The main thing that keeps me teaching is the connection and relationship I’m able to build with my students, being able to help them through tough challenges and help them get to the goals that they want to reach. That’s why I’m still here.”
Outside of school, Tucker and his wife, Becky, both have become big fans of cars.
Participating in the hobby is something they love to do together. They go to car shows and work on cars to take up a lot of their free time.
Tucker’s favorite car is his convertible Corvette, which he drives when it is nice enough to have the top down. When he’s not teaching and working on cars, another one of Tucker’s favorite hobbies is spending time with his wife, his daughter, Rachel and his son, Zachary.
His daughter is finishing her master’s degree in history at Oklahoma University and his son is a senior at Oklahoma State University studying saxophone performance.
Tucker said that, with both of his children being in college, it is tough to have everybody’s schedule line up together, so he values all the time he can get with his family.