Commissioner
Bob Anthony
Bob Anthony is currently the longest serving
utility commissioner in the United States and has served six times as
chairman of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission. He is a member of the
board of directors for the National Association of Regulatory Utility
Commissioners and past chairman of the National Regulatory Research
Institute.
Anthony is a member of the National Petroleum Council, having been
appointed four times by the United States Secretary of Energy. He is
past president of the Mid-America Regulatory Conference, a member and
past president of the Economic Club of Oklahoma, and
for eight years was a delegate to the worldwide General Conference of
the United Methodist Church.
Anthony holds a BS from the Wharton School of
Finance at the University of Pennsylvania; a Master of Science from the
London School of Economics; a Master of Arts from Yale University; and a
Master of Public Administration from Harvard University. He rose to the
rank of captain in the U.S. Army Reserve. In 1972 he served as staff
economist for the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs of the
U. S. House of
Representatives (now called the Natural Resources Committee). From 1979
to 1980 Anthony served on the Oklahoma City Council as Ward 2 Councilman
and then as vice mayor. In 1980, at age thirty-two, Anthony became
president of C.R. Anthony Company retail stores, then the largest
privately-owned firm headquartered in Oklahoma. During his seven-year
term as president, annual sales for the retail chain increased from $256
to $411 million, with payroll, employment, and dollar profits reaching
all-time record levels. In 1988 he was chairman of the Trust Committee
of Oklahoma’s largest bank trust department.
In 1995 the Federal Bureau of Investigation
honored Anthony with its highest award given to a citizen who “at great
personal sacrifice, has unselfishly served his community and the
nation.” Among other
recognitions, the American Association of Retired Persons of Oklahoma
presented Anthony with an award “in appreciation of his tireless efforts
on behalf of Oklahoma consumers.”
Anthony has served as a statewide elected
official longer than any other current Oklahoma office holder, winning
his fifth consecutive six-year term on the Oklahoma Corporation
Commission in 2012 and carrying all 77 counties. He initially ran for
the Corporation Commission in 1988, becoming the first Republican
elected to that body in sixty years and receiving more votes than any
Republican since statehood. In 1994 Anthony became the first Republican
incumbent in Oklahoma history to win statewide reelection to a state
office. In 2000 he was reelected, receiving more votes at that time than
any candidate for state office in Oklahoma history.