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Officials from the Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College (NEO) Development Foundation recently announced that $10,000 was donated to endow the Shirley Routt Bomford Memorial Business Scholarship by her husband Tom before his recent passing. Bomford was a lifelong advocate of education and served on the NEO Foundation Board under three NEO presidents. Born in Okmulgee, Okla. in 1925, she attended both the University of Oklahoma and Duke University before graduating from OU with a degree in English and Spanish in 1947. The same year, she married Tom Bomford and the couple moved to Miami. Bomford is remembered as a community-minded individual and she was highly involved in her church, local business boards, and the success of NEO and OU. She and Tom partnered in Bomford Farms for over 20 years and enjoyed escaping to Grand Lake where the couple kept a boat.

Mrs. Bomford passed away on July 20, 2016; she was 90. Her husband Tom endowed the fund in her memory shortly before his passing on February 3, 2017. Their daughter Barbara Bomford Newman, three grandchildren, and six grandchildren survive them. The endowment established by the Mr. Bomford will provide $500 per year toward the purchase of books for students who demonstrate financial need and maintain a minimum 2.5 grade point average (GPA). “The NEO Development Foundation is grateful for this generous gift from the Bomford family,” said Jennifer Walker, executive director of the NEO Development Foundation. “Shirley was a big advocate of education and she spent her life helping others. This scholarship, endowed in her memory, will help students at NEO for generations.” For more information on the Shirley Routt Bomford Memorial Business Scholarship or any other scholarship offered through the NEO Foundation, please contact Jennifer Walker at 918-540-6250.