Brian Jackson

Biography

My Family 1960s

Mom and Dad’s families came to Oklahoma four generations ago. Both they and my grandparents attended Oktaha Public School. Actually, Mom first attended a one-room school house in rural Muskogee County for her first six grades before transferring to Oktaha. Anyway, upon transferring to Oktaha she met a rather ornery fellow in her class that must have had something going for him. Mom tells me he had big muscles. Anyway, Dad won Mom for his bride upon graduation in 1958.

Because good jobs were in short supply around Muskogee then, Dad joined the U.S. Army and served our country. Mom gave birth to my brother and me while our little family was stationed at Ft. Lewis in Washington State. Several years later, Mom and Dad moved us back to Muskogee County where my brother and I also attended Oktaha Public Schools through grade, middle and high school.

My Education 1970s – 80s

Upon graduation, I attended four years of undergraduate school at NSU-Tahlequah when I earned a double-major in Mathematics and Chemistry. I commuted from my parents’ home, then in East Muskogee, to Tahlequah while working for Safeway Stores in Muskogee. I learned about honest work while stocking, cleaning and mopping floors at the old store on the NE corner of Okmulgee St. and East-Side Blvd. Those were challenging days for me as I split my time between work and school (including late nights in the physical chemistry lab on the Tahlequah campus).

Following graduation from NSU, I transferred to a Safeway Store in Norman, Oklahoma where I worked every position except that of meat-cutter while earning an M.S. degree in mathematics at OU.

My Experience 1990s – 2010s

Afterwards, I entered the employ of the U.S. Government / Central Intelligence Agency in Washington, DC. There, I worked as a scientist for about three years while my sweet wife Kathy (also an NSU grad) taught for a Christian school in Maryland. Kathy and I subsequently lived in Texas and started having kids of our own before moving back to Oklahoma in 1990. In time, I was afforded the opportunity to successively earn a PhD in Economics at Oklahoma State University and complete a GradCert in Corporate Finance through the extension school of Harvard University.

Kathy was my special blessing for 28 years until she passed away in 2013. At that time, she was a beloved math teacher at Hilldale High School in Muskogee. Students loved Kathy Jackson.

The Present

Then just three years ago, I married again. This time to a sweet gal I had a crush on back when we were classmates at Oktaha School. Now Shirley Jackson is there to get me through this life.

Since moving back home to Muskogee County over three decades ago, I have served the citizens of Oklahoma as an instructor or professor in mathematics, economics, accounting and finance at various Oklahoma higher educational institutions. For eleven years I was an instructor of mathematics and physics at Connors State College in Warner. Today, I am finishing my fourteenth year on the faculty of Northeastern State University where I serve as an associate professor of accounting and economics.