News from the Oklahoma Corporation Commission

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Patrick K. Petree Reference: OCC63099-43

OKLAHOMA CITY – Glen T. McHale, Oklahoma state government's senior active employee, will retire on Thursday, July 1, on the anniversary of his 50 years of state service.

Gov. Frank Keating will preside at a retirement ceremony at 10:30 a.m. in the Blue Room of the State Capitol. A reception will follow at the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, where McHale has worked the past 28 years as a motor carrier enforcement officer.

McHale, 73, has spent nearly all of his state government career in southwest Oklahoma.

He began Oklahoma government service as a dispatcher for the Oklahoma Highway Patrol in Lawton on July 1, 1949. After training, he was assigned as a highway patrol trooper in October 1950. He served in the Blackwell and Perry districts until returning to the Lawton district and moving to Waurika, in January 1952.

McHale transferred to the Corporation Commission as a motor carrier enforcement officer in 1971 after completing a 22-year career with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. He has continued to patrol southwest Oklahoma roads from his base in Waurika.

McHale is a World War II Navy veteran. He served aboard the battleship Pennsylvania in the South Pacific in 1943-46. He said his interest in law enforcement came about in part from Navy shore patrol duty while awaiting military discharge after returning to the United States.

-occ-