Oklahoma: A Story Through Her People

R & R
ENGINEERING
COMPANY, INC.
Below: Wayne Banes Rumley.
For almost fifty years, R & R Engineering
Company, Inc., has provided outstanding
engineering principles and innovative
manufacturing designs for the oil, gas, and
petrochemical industries. Located in Tulsa
County, Oklahoma, the company was founded
on July 23, 1968, by Wayne Banes Rumley.
A 1960 graduate of the
University of Tulsa, Wayne
interned as a rating engineer
with Western Supply
Company of Tulsa before
accepting a position as
a process engineer with
Champlin Oil Company of
Enid, Oklahoma, and later
as a rating engineer with
ALCO of Houston, Texas.
He returned to Tulsa
to start Air Cooled Heat Exchangers in 1963,
which he sold in 1968 in order to expand
his vision of individualized success in
the air-cooled heat exchanger business.
Subsequently, Wayne founded his current
endeavor R & R Engineering Company, Inc.,
that same year. Despite having few employees,
he was able to provide the engineering and
design functions necessary to construct heat
exchangers while actively selling his ideas
and products to prospective customers.
Although the sales trips often involved
visiting several states within a twenty-four
to forty-eight hour time interval, he would
return from the long trips eager to oversee
the manufacturing of the heat exchangers in
his small rented fabrication facility.
In 1971, R & R Engineering expanded
onto the company’s current site at 12585
East Sixty-First Street in Broken Arrow,
Oklahoma. The office and fabrication shop are
situated on seventeen acres that was on the
outskirts of Tulsa County when the company
first began. Although the original office and
shop combination was small, necessitating
that Wayne and his shop foreman share
space with the actual manufacturing process,
it was evident that the location would allow
for future measured expansion.
Wayne focused on his desire for success.
By measuring business cycles and carefully
observing the ever-changing financial climate,
he prudently invested in R & R’s expansion
with the goal of adequate growth to meet
ongoing demand while remaining debt free.
Today, the company includes a large office
complex and a modern fabrication facility,
totaling more than 50,000 square feet,
housing the latest in design innovation and
manufacturing programs and equipment.
R & R Engineering Company, Inc., provides
equipment to many of the leading oil, gas, and
petrochemical firms across the globe. The
present team, who share Wayne’s visionary
approach, are: President and Chief Engineer
Tim Childress assisted by the Rumleys; Vice
President Warren Burch; Purchasing Agent
Warren Benjamin; Engineer Andrea; Controller
Beverly Kendrick; Mechanical Engineer Dustin
Agee; Sales Manager Nick Parker; Shop
Superintendent Jim Hammers; and Heat Transfer
Consultant and Professor of Engineering at the
University of Tulsa Kraemer Luks. James Cook
holds the title of sales manager emeritus. The
cornerstone of R & R Engineering’s manufacturing
capabilities is the dedicated full time
shop employees, many of them have been
employed here for more than fifteen years.
Wayne functions today as CEO and
process engineer of the company with his
achievements leading to his inclusion in the
University of Tulsa’s Engineering and Natural
Sciences Hall of Fame in 2004. He has
established several chemical engineering
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