Hometown Hero Award Recipients
2024 - Tirita Montross
2023 - Debbie Nobles
2022 - Andy Flores
2021 - Mary Sue Overbey
2019 - Ruth Ellen Henry
2018 - Jack Younger
2017 - Sandi Byerly
2016 - David Ward
2015 - Cynthia "Cindy" Phillips
2014 - Patty Dixon
2013 - Mike Burdge
2012 - Richard Lorton
2011 - George Paden
2010 - Ramona Ellison
2009 - John Rudy
2008 - Jim Palmer
2007 - Howard Smith
2006 - Joe Williams
2005 - Gerrie Holladay
2004 - Jerry Hanner
2003 - Dr. Dan Moore
2002 - Bill Brown
2001 - Norma Coble
2000 - Tot M. Brown
1999 - Ruth Leib
1997 - Rev. Bill E. Weaver
1996 - Bessie Crawford Zackery
1995 - Montie Box
1994 - Erwin D. Phillips
1993 - George W. Hilsheimer
1992 - Dr. Wendell A. Sharpton
1991 - Ed Dubie
1990 - Dale Morrow
1989 - None
1988 - Mary Ward
Dale C. Morrow
b. April 6, 1912. d. April 9, 2007.
Longtime Sand Springs businessman and former City Mayor Dale Morrow was awarded the Hometown Hero Award in 1991.
Morrow was born in Durant, Oklahoma and married Dorothy Ellen Chaffin in 1938. He served in the Army during World War II and attained the rank of first sergeant. The Morrows moved to Sand Springs in 1946. In 1954 he partnered with Claude Gill to open Morrow-Gill Lumber, where he worked until retiring at the age of 90. Morrow Road, where the store was located til it closed in 2015, was named for Morrow in the late 1970s.
Morrow served on City Council from 1963 to 1976 and was mayor from 1969 to 1972. He helped the City change to a Council-Manager form of government in 1969, and helped adopt the first city-wide sales tax.
He presided over the Oklahoma Lumberman's Association from 1967 to 1968, was awarded the John Hess Award in 2003, and served as a deacon and chairman of the building committee at Broadway Baptist Church, where he attended for more than sixty years. He was a Mason and a Rotarian for more than half a century.
Morrow passed away in 2007 at the age of 95. He had five children, six grandchildren, and thirteen great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife of 56 years.