Founders’ Day is an opportunity to celebrate the heritage and shape the future of OBU. This special event commemorates the university’s incorporation in February 1910.

The OBU Founders’ Day Chapel message will be provided by Dr. Heath Thomas at 10 a.m. on Feb. 8, 2023 in the Raley Chapel.

This year’s Founders’ Day Chapel also includes the prestigious “Installation of Chairs and Professorships.”

Founders’ Day A certificate of incorporation was issued by the State of Oklahoma to The Baptist University of Oklahoma (now The Oklahoma Baptist University) on Feb. 9, 1910, whose stated purposes included providing opportunities for all departments of higher education to persons of both sexes on equal terms; establishing and maintaining one or more colleges and to provide instruction in all collegiate studies; and establishing and maintaining an institution of higher learning in which all the branches of advanced learning may be taught.

The first Board of Trustees of the University and leaders of the City of Shawnee determined that the new school should be located on the northwest edge of the city on a sixty-acre tract known as the Kickapoo site.

Founding fathers of the University came to the prairie location which would become known as Bison Hill and knelt and prayed that Almighty God would “send down upon this school the rich gift” of His Spirit and that the “Spirit would dwell in this place from generation to generation.”

One hundred and thirteen years later, Oklahoma Baptist University’s statement of its mission emphasizes the school’s faithful commitment to the Oklahoma Baptist founding fathers: “As a Christian liberal arts university, OBU transforms lives by equipping students to pursue academic excellence; integrate faith with all areas of knowledge; engage a diverse world; and live worthy of the high calling of God in Christ.” OBU is a University of Future Shapers.

Significant recognition has been directed to Oklahoma Baptist University for the quality of its academic programs and the opportunities provided to its students.

Dr. Heath Thomas Dr. Thomas became the 16th President of Oklahoma Baptist University on January 1, 2020.

Dr. Thomas joined the OBU faculty in 2015. Since then, he served as the dean of the Hobbs College of Theology and Ministry and the associate vice president for church relations. Thomas also served as interim dean of the Divisions of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Language and Literature, and the Floyd K. Clark Chair of Christian Leadership.

Prior to arriving at OBU, Dr. Thomas served as Director of Ph.D. Studies and Associate Professor of Old Testament and Hebrew at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina. An OBU graduate (1998), Dr. Thomas also holds degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and the University of Gloucestershire (UK). Dr. Thomas has served on staff at churches in Oklahoma, Texas, North Carolina, and in the United Kingdom. Passionate about opening up the Scriptures for today, he preaches and teaches regularly. Dr. Thomas resides in the Shawnee area with his wife and four children.