Oklahoma: A Story Through Her People
A full-color photography book showcasing Oklahoma paired with the histories of companies, institutions, and organizations that have made the state great.
A full-color photography book showcasing Oklahoma paired with the histories of companies, institutions, and organizations that have made the state great.
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Additionally, to bring worldwide attention<br />
to the subject of energy policies and Hefner’s<br />
thoughts on natural gas abundance, in 2013,<br />
China’s CITIC Press published the Chinese<br />
version of The Grand Energy Transition book.<br />
Hefner has been active—over many<br />
decades—in numerous philanthropic, artistic<br />
and cultural endeavors. In 1980 he donated a<br />
building to Ballet <strong>Oklahoma</strong> for their dance<br />
studios and in 1981 won the Forbes “Business<br />
in the Arts” award. In the mid-1980s he<br />
began collecting contemporary Chinese oil<br />
paintings from the historic and artistically<br />
explosive period following the Cultural<br />
Revolution in China and today Hefner<br />
and his wife MeiLi continue to develop<br />
the world renowned Hefner Collection<br />
(www.hefnercollection.com). In 1982, Hefner<br />
brought the Phillips Collection—the first<br />
major internationally famous collection—to<br />
the <strong>Oklahoma</strong> Museum of Art in <strong>Oklahoma</strong><br />
City and in 1989 he acquired a large, historic<br />
piece of the Berlin Wall, as it was coming<br />
down, holding in <strong>Oklahoma</strong> City, the first<br />
of several Berlin Wall exhibitions. In 1997,<br />
he brought his Hefner Collection to Norman<br />
for an exhibition at the Fred Jones, Jr.,<br />
Museum at OU. Mr. and Mrs. Hefner have<br />
established the Robert and MeiLi Hefner<br />
Foundation (www.hefnerfoundation.org),<br />
supporting the “Hefner Initiative” program,<br />
which currently funds trips to China and<br />
Singapore for outstanding students from<br />
selected high schools, including the <strong>Oklahoma</strong><br />
School of Science and Mathematics (OSSM)<br />
in <strong>Oklahoma</strong> City.<br />
Hefner has historically been closely<br />
involved with, supported and is a member<br />
of many organizations and institutions—<br />
statewide, domestically, and internationally.<br />
He is a Fellow National in The Explorers<br />
Club, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical<br />
Society in London, on the International<br />
Council at Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science<br />
and International Affairs, on Singapore’s<br />
International Advisory Panel on Energy, was<br />
a former advisory board member of the<br />
International Institute for Applied Systems<br />
Analysis in Austria, and is founding director<br />
and president of The Bradshaw Foundation<br />
(www.bradshawfoundation.com).<br />
During the 1970s and through the 1990s<br />
Hefner worked tirelessly for the <strong>Oklahoma</strong><br />
energy industry and was, variously, chairman<br />
of the <strong>Oklahoma</strong> Energy Advisory Council,<br />
chairman of the Independent Gas Producers<br />
Committee, on the board of directors of the<br />
<strong>Oklahoma</strong> Petroleum Council, <strong>Oklahoma</strong>’s<br />
Representative to the Interstate Oil Compact<br />
Commission, on the board of directors of<br />
the Mid-Continent Oil & Gas Association,<br />
and a founder of the University of <strong>Oklahoma</strong><br />
Energy Center. Hefner was inducted into the<br />
Western <strong>Oklahoma</strong> Hall of Fame in 1980<br />
and into the <strong>Oklahoma</strong> Hall of Fame in<br />
2010, where he was preceded by his father,<br />
Robert A. Hefner, Jr., (inducted in 1973) and<br />
his grandfather, Judge Robert A. Hefner<br />
(inducted in 1949). Robert A. Hefner III has<br />
3 children, 7 grandchildren and 4 greatgrandchildren—all<br />
<strong>Oklahoma</strong>ns, with several<br />
continuing the family tradition by following<br />
him into the energy business.<br />
Above and below: Robert A. Hefner III.<br />
O K L A H O M A P A R T N E R S<br />
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