WOMAN OF INFLUENCE: DR. KAYSE SHRUM

WOMAN OF INFLUENCE DR. KAYSE SHRUM

BY CHRISTINE EDDINGTON

Dr. Kayse Shrum became the first female president of Oklahoma State University on July 1, 2021. She is, frankly, fascinating: She’s a compassionate leader, an impressive fundraiser, a tireless champion and role model for young people and someone whose small-town Oklahoma roots run deep. Growing up in Coweta, near Tulsa, Shrum and her sister heard from their parents that if they worked hard enough, they could do anything. That’s the message she and husband Darren share with their six children, and it’s what she wants every Cowgirl and Cowboy now under her charge to take to heart.

In an interview with State Magazine, Shrum’s father Dennis Donnelly shared a story of his daughter’s tenacity and work ethic. As an eighth-grader, Shrum played catcher on her softball team. At a tournament, she saw a pitcher receive an individual trophy, and asked her dad why the pitcher got her own award. “I said, ‘Well, because that’s a skill position,’” Donnelly said. “And when I came home, she was throwing a ball against the wall. For two or three days, she kept throwing the ball against the wall. So I thought, well, you know, I’ll get her some lessons. And then she started throwing the ball in the garage, and she was throwing the ball through the garage, into the den and then through the windows.” She pitched a perfect game in high school, and earned herself interest from Big 12 Conference schools, but Shrum, a small-town girl at heart, opted for Connors State College in Warner instead.

Shrum’s sister, Patti Plunk, shared a similar story of early foreshadowing with State. As a young girl, Plunk would walk into Shrum’s room to find her sister holding meetings with her stuffed animals. They’d each have a sheet of paper and a crayon in front of them. “I would open her door and she would say, ‘Get out, we’re in a meeting,’” Plunk said. “That’s one of my best memories … Now she’s in meetings all the time.”

So perhaps it comes as no surprise that Dr. Shrum is now also President Shrum. Says she of her achievement, “I don’t miss the significance of how historic it is and what it means to people. I’ve heard from countless students and future Cowgirls this year who have shared their excitement and well-wishes. And honestly, it’s important for young people to see women in these kinds of roles. I hope my story encourages young women to pursue their dreams and a life without limits. If they want to do it, they can. I’ll be cheering them on.”

Naturally, this is not the only barrier Shrum has shattered. She’d served as president of OSU’s Center for Health Sciences (OSU-CHS) since 2013, and her selection at the time made her the youngest and first female president and dean of a medical school in the state of Oklahoma. Shrum trained and served rural Oklahoma as a pediatrician before beginning her academic work at OSU-CHS when Burns Hargis — who preceded her as OSU President — appointed her to lead the medical school.

Under Dr. Shrum’s leadership, OSU Center for Health Sciences experienced unprecedented growth. Student enrollment doubled, and the center established new academic programs designed to meet the health care workforce needs of Oklahoma. She led the construction of the A.R. and Marylouise Tandy Medical

Academic Building, a state-of-the-art learning facility housing Oklahoma’s largest and most technologically advanced hospital simulation center.

Her fundraising accomplishments included securing a significant investment from Purdue Pharma for $197.5 million in 2019, to create the National Center for Wellness and Recovery for addiction treatment and research to address the national opioid addiction epidemic. Shrum, a strong supporter of collaborative partnerships, worked with former Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Bill John Baker and his administration to establish the nation’s first tribally affiliated medical school, the OSU College of Osteopathic Medicine at the Cherokee Nation, which opened in 2020.

In 2019, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt appointed Shrum to his cabinet as Oklahoma’s first Secretary of Science and Innovation. She played a critical part in the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic: Her innovative leadership approach and medical expertise helped secure much-needed PPE supplies and led to the formation of Oklahoma’s largest COVID diagnostics lab on OSU’s Stillwater campus.

After a little more than a year in her newest role, Shrum is excited. “In November 2021, I announced the launch of a strategy process. That’s nearly complete and will go to the Board of Regents soon. It’s been an intense time of listening and charting a course to become the premier land-grant university in the United States. We’ve also just celebrated record freshman enrollment. It’s a clear and rewarding sign of the strength of Oklahoma State University, its research, its world-class faculty and the culture built on the tenets of the Cowboy Code.”

When asked what her best advice would be for incoming students, President Shrum focused on the importance of a person’s outlook. “When I became interim dean of the OSU College of Osteopathic Medicine, I went in full of ideas of how to make things better,” she says. “But [as] with any organization going through changes, there was resistance, setbacks and obstacles. I would come home every night and my husband Darren would ask me about my day, and I would tell him about all the problems I encountered. I decided one day that my mindset wasn’t helpful. But I knew Darren would ask, [so] I decided instead to tell him about all the opportunities. That is one thing I would like all incoming college students to know: There will be obstacles. There will be times when things don’t go the way they want, but in every obstacle and setback there is opportunity. That little bit of reframing makes all the difference.”

Her unflagging driving mission, just like her work ethic, is rooted in her Coweta days. “The first time I ever visited Oklahoma State was for a softball camp when I was 13. It was quite the experience for a girl from Coweta. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that I would someday be president of the OSU system. But what I’ve discovered is that in many ways, that’s exactly what Oklahoma State University was created to do. Everyone has opportunity and possibility — even those from the smallest towns — if they’re willing to work hard.” •

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Gregory Henderson, left, and Joseph Massa are the creative mad geniuses behind the Roxbury Experience.

THE ROXBURY EXPERIENCE

Total fantasy immersion in the Catskills

BY CHRISTINE EDDINGTON

The story of The Roxbury Experience has it all: small-town beginnings, a stint in the Big Apple, finding true love, moving out of the big city to follow a dream, a fire, an epiphany in the desert — and then, finally, a magical place filled with fantasy, gold leaf, glitter and shimmer. Oh, and a success story as unique and creative as our protagonists, Gregory Henderson and Joseph Massa.

Husbands Henderson and Massa are the masterminds behind two of the most-

talked-about, internationally celebrated and Instagrammable properties in the world, The Roxbury Motel and The Roxbury at Stratton Falls. Tucked into a sweet pocket in New York’s lush Catskill Mountains, the properties are two miles apart and guests of either are encouraged to indulge in the amenities of both, which include spas, pools and the restorative nature of, well, nature. Conde Nast Traveler raves about it. “CBS Sunday Morning” recently aired a feature on it. New York Magazine was an early fan.

The two properties are collectively referred to as The Roxbury Experience, an understated name for sites that are anything but. The spaces they’ve created are immersive, joyful, fantastical and exuberant. The level of detail is impeccable, and it simply has to be. Their vision absolutely would not work without artisan-level craftsmanship and a keen eye on every detail.

SMALL-TOWN BEGINNINGS

Henderson grew up in Duncan, Oklahoma, where his mother lived (though she’s now in Edmond), and spent quite a bit of time in Oklahoma City, where his father and stepmother are based. Oklahoma is home for him, but as a young man he left the minute he could. Because he was different.

“I knew I had to get out,” he says. His family, multiple generations, attended the University of Oklahoma and were deeply entrenched in the university’s Greek system. It was considered a given that Henderson would follow suit. “You know what,” he says, “I was petrified, petrified of being in the fraternity. If I followed family tradition and went to OU, it would be expected of me. And I knew that I was different, but I actually didn't come out until I was 26.”

His father, a stereotype-eschewing man who values education, took him on a trip to visit some East Coast colleges, and though Henderson had excellent grades he wasn’t sure he’d get in. “Georgetown accepted me, and to this day, one of the scariest moments of my life was waving goodbye to my mom.” He was on his path.

At Georgetown he majored in international finance, but his secret dream was to be an actor. He remembers, “It's something that I had wanted since my earliest memory, but I was afraid to tell my family. It kind of coincided with being gay in many ways. I was miserable by the end of Georgetown — not with the school, but with what I was studying. So I spent my senior year auditioning for acting programs in New York City, and got waitlisted at Juilliard and got accepted into the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.” He told his father. “I was so scared to tell my father, you know, they’d just spent all this money on my education, and I wanted to go to acting school. And he was great about it! So I went to the American Academy, a twoyear program.”

The Mansion at Stratton Falls THE BIG APPLE AND TRUE LOVE

Henderson graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in May of 1988. And then: “I got cast in an offBroadway play in October of 1988. And who was in that play? Joseph. My husband.” The play was “Reaching Out,” directed by the son of actor Olympia Dukakis, also the nephew of politician Michael Dukakis. But we digress. Our hero had found his leading man, but they would remain merely friends at first.

Massa, whom Henderson lovingly describes as a true artist, had grown up in New Hampshire and held a degree in theater, and in a tale as old as time, had moved to New York City with a bus ticket and a few dollars in his pocket, initially living at the YMCA. After saving enough to move in with a friend, like many working actors, Massa started looking for a day job, and was advised to try construction because it paid well. His first construction job (building cabinetry in New Jersey) led to a job in scenic construction. “He did that for many years, while also acting and directing and producing.” Massa was even a set builder for “Saturday Night Live” in the mid- and late ’80s. “He's brilliant,” Henderson says, “And modest about it.”

The pair worked together again in 1990. “We did another play; he actually wrote it. And it was off-Broadway on 42nd Street. And that's when we became a couple. We were in theater all through the ’90s. Toward the end of my theatrical career, I was doing a one-man show that he directed and produced. We literally went from city to city, not knowing where our next meal was coming from, with our set and our costumes and the props and everything in our Nissan station wagon.” The oneman show was slated to be turned into a huge production. “We had several producers and investors, but one producer wound up being a nightmare.” The couple decided they couldn’t work with him — and with that, the curtain came down on Henderson’s acting career.

Luckily, he had that fallback degree, the one in international finance. He took a job. “It was with Moody's Investors Service, which is a big, big bond rating agency. Within a year and a half, I became a vice president. It was kind of a crazy time. And that enabled us to buy the cabin I’m sitting in right now, in the Catskills, as a little weekend getaway.” After Moody’s, he moved to a commodity derivatives risk-management firm. “I was just miserable,” he says. “Joe moved up to the Catskills and started selling real estate and I stayed in the city and was still working. We were toying around with what to do. Then 9/11 happened, and that was the final straw like it was for so many people.”

ESCAPING THE URBAN JUNGLE, THE FIRE AND THE RESULTING DESERT EPIPHANY

Enter Eric Wedemeyer, real estate agent and agent of change. Massa had been working for Wedemeyer’s real estate company. “He's been kind of like a mentor,” Henderson says. “He was like, ‘You know, there's this property in Roxbury, New York…’” It was a 10-unit motel but hadn’t functioned as a motel since the late ’70s; it was being used for transient housing. “He told us that the area desperately needed more lodging, so maybe we should look at that.” Wedemeyer’s advice was: “Just make it lodging. I know you guys. Don’t go crazy with it.”

The Tower Cottages at Stratton Falls

The Faerie Forest at Stratton Falls, AKA Room 43 TOP: Perhaps the mostrequested room at either property: The Shagadelic at the Motel location

BOTTOM: The Wizard's Emeralds room at the Motel location

The Roxbury Motel opened in 2004. Its vibe was mid-century modern at that point. They were paying tribute, Henderson said, to the era of the classic 1950s family road trip, before Norman Bates ruined motels for everyone.

“We did one room which we thought, at the time, was over the top,” says Henderson. “It was like an experiment, and we thought it was just going to be too much for people. We called it the Austin Powers Suite. It was the only suite that had a separate bedroom and little kitchen, still does. It's now called the Shagadellic. And from day one, that's what everybody wanted.” Then, New York Magazine ran a blurb with a photo about the Austin Powers suite, which put The Roxbury Motel on the map. Bookings were growing. Its reputation grew, too.

Before long, they’d optioned a piece of land in another village with plans to franchise. “And we're talking to Hilton and Marriott … Choice Hotels, it's called.” The couple took a risk, put a second mortgage on their house and spent money on architectural plans. “But we had this nagging feeling in our gut that it was a mistake.” The behemoth corporation began doing what behemoths do: dictating design directions and forcing compromises for a potentially very lucrative lodging franchise.

Then two things happened. First, a home that the couple owned and was renting to vacationers (ahead of the Airbnb curve), beautifully furnished with Henderson’s grandparents’ furnishings, burned to the ground. “We were awakened one morning, and both of us had the same thought. We both felt like we were in New York City, because we were awakened by all the sirens. And we were like, ‘Wait a minute, we're on our mountain. Why are there sirens?’” Their windows were glowing from the inferno. The house was worse than a total loss.

“So it was one of those life-changing moments. And we were scheduled to go on the first vacation we had had in two years in two weeks.” Everyone told them just go, just go. “We also found out that because it was a second residence, it wasn't insured for replacement value and we actually wound up owing $100,000, which we didn't have then. So that's a long-winded way of saying it was if it was a screenplay, you know, that was the cathartic moment.”

They took their trip, a tour of the American Southwest, hearts broken. Henderson says, “I was driving between the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas … Joseph got very sick and wound up in the hospital for two days on our vacation, because he got pneumonia.” Massa had worked tirelessly in the smoldering rubble, trying to find things he could save. “He was in the passenger seat next to me, I was driving and I had this moment where I was like, ‘We can't build a Marriott.’”

In a made-for-Hollywood moment, they scrapped the big corporate deal, stayed true to themselves and forged their own sparkling, magnificent path. And hallelujah for that.

The Roxbury Motel got a big glow-up and an expansion, with reimagined décor in increasingly elaborate themes based on classic television shows from the 1960s. Think “I Dream of Jeannie,” “The Flintstones,” “The Partridge Family” and the like. Even more elaborately themed mansion rooms and tower cottages with 30foot ceilings are available at the Roxbury at Stratton Falls, which launched just as the COVID-19 pandemic began.

What seemed like a huge setback, maybe even the beginning of the end, turned out to be a period of concentrated creative time that allowed Henderson and Massa to pour themselves into every detail of the Stratton Falls location. The results are stunning.

They’re total fantasy immersion, as the couple likes to say. Each room or suite is a living work of art, almost too elaborate to describe, but Henderson sums it up: “Imagine if Alice in Wonderland married Willy Wonka and set up residence in Oz. That’s what we want the Roxbury Experience to be.” •

CRUISING MEMORY LANE

Javier Leclerc’s restoration work yields an automotive blast from the past

BY MICHAEL KINNEY PHOTOGRAPHY BY TAYLOR DEWITT

Javier Leclerc remembers vividly the old 1971 Chevelle Wagon his family had when he was a kid. With closer similarities to a tank than a Corvette, it was not something most would have called a work of art. But there was one aspect of the green and brown station wagon that Leclerc remembers fondly.

“Those cars came with what they called a jump seat, which is at the very rear and faced backward,” Leclerc says. “I remember for a long time, probably when I was between the ages of five and 10, that’s what my mom drove every day. And that’s what we rode in. And my brother and I used to sit on the very back facing back — because we knew that if we got into a fight, my mom couldn’t get to us.”

As Leclerc got older and his career in auto restoration blossomed, thoughts of the station wagon would arise. While it didn’t get any prettier, the memories he had in it did. So a year ago, when Leclerc had the opportunity to get his hands on a similar 1971 Chevelle station wagon, he knew what he had to do.

“I had such a great memory about it, and I like to build stuff that that is different,” he says. “And I always wanted a family-driven car that you could do everything with; that could go fast. It has 1,100 horsepower and it’s comfortable enough to take on a road trip and my wife can drive it. It’s so unique and different. So that when I saw that it was for sale, I bought it.”

Recently, Leclerc drove the newly rebuilt station wagon down to Dallas and entered it into one of the biggest car events in the region, the inaugural Holley LS Fest Texas at the Texas Motor Speedway. To his surprise, he not only came away with the prize for Best Muscle Car (1964-74) but also took home the Best of Show. This means he had the top automobile at the prestigious event.

“I was surprised because there were a lot more cars,” Leclerc says. “The level of overall quality was a lot higher. I was surprised about both. But because it’s a wagon and nobody sees wagons and nobody wants to build a wagon of this kind or put that much work into a wagon — it’s rare. So, I knew it drew a lot of attention. I knew that based on the attention that maybe I got some votes.”

When Leclerc originally bought the station wagon, he didn’t have set intentions to enter it into any contests. That’s not why he restores vehicles to their former glory. But the opportunity seemed like a perfect chance to display a unique vehicle that was also a significant part of his childhood.

“My wagon, it’s built to be on the road course. But because I just got it done not too long ago, I hadn’t had a chance to set it up,” Leclerc says. “So I wanted to, No. 1, test it. So, I took it on a road trip to Dallas, three hours down and three hours up, and it didn’t miss a lick with AC and everything. And I just decided to enter the car show.”

Leclerc bought the station wagon in early 2021 from the editor of a nationally known car magazine. At the time, he was told the car was 90 percent completed and he would just need to put the finishing touches on it. It seemed like the perfect job for him; even though he

Leclerc’s 1971 Chevelle station wagon at Texas Motor Speedway

calls himself retired, he continually has several different projects he is working on for his business (D.I. Motorwerkz) or his own personal collection. But when Leclerc got his hands on the station wagon, he saw that it was not going to be a quick fix like he had hoped.

“I ended up having to take the whole thing apart and redoing almost everything, including the engine, because he had too many people working on it that didn’t know what they were doing,” Leclerc says.

It took him more than a year to get the car to the point that he felt comfortable enough to enter it in the LS Fest. While he originally didn’t want to put that much work into the project, in the end, he was glad that he did. It wasn’t somebody else’s work that claimed the Best in Show title; he and his crew put in the work, which made it more satisfying.

“It’s better because now I know the vehicle 100 percent inside and out,” Leclerc says. “It leads you to believe that harder work pays off. It’s not really somebody else’s car except for like that 10 percent. But having to go back 80 percent and then finish it — it’s more my car than whoever sold it to me.”

Leclerc said winning the titles and trophies at the LS Fest really doesn’t mean too much to him. After all, he has a room full of hardware from his years of entering contests. But what did make him feel good was when his parents came down to visit and saw the ’71 Chevelle after it had been fully restored.

“They love it. They saw it a few times when [it was] dusty because I was working on it, but with it running and the way it’s put together, Dad was really impressed,” Leclerc said. “I didn’t have time this time around to take my mom and dad for a ride. But [they] now know that I have it and they come here quite a bit. It’s going to happen eventually.” •