Robert J LaFortune

Early life

LaFortune was born and raised in Tulsa. His parents, Joseph Aloysius LaFortune and Gertrude Leona Tremel LaFortune, who had moved there in 1920 from South Bend, Indiana. Joseph, a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, worked for thirty years at was an Warren Petroleum Company, becoming executive vice president and a noted local philanthropist. Robert LaFortune graduated from Cascia Hall Preparatory School in 1944. He served in the United States Merchant Marine Cadet Corps for two years. After receiving his discharge, he attended the University of Tulsa and then transferred to Purdue University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering in 1951. He then joined Reilly Tar and Chemical Company, where he worked for five years. He then became a part owner of Reed Drilling Company.

Public sector

Robert left private business to serve as Tulsa's commissioner of streets and public property from 1964 to 1970). LaFortune was elected Mayor of Tulsa in 1970. He was active in the development of the Tulsa Port of Catoosa and the city's freeway system, as well as the Williams Center and Tulsa Performing Arts Center in downtown Tulsa.

Awards and honors

He is or has been a director of Apco Argentina Inc., BOK Financial Corporation and the Williams Companies. LaFortune is a member of the National Executive Board of the Boy Scouts of America, the organization's governing body.

He was a 1982 recipient of the Silver Buffalo Award from the Boy Scouts of America, and in 1995 the University of Tulsa granted him an honorary doctor of laws degree. He is the uncle of Bill LaFortune, who served as Mayor of Tulsa (2002–2006).

Personal life

LaFortune's grandson, G. T. Bynum, is mayor of Tulsa.