David Boren dies: Reaction, coverage of the death of Oklahoma icon
Boren, 83, died at his home Thursday surrounded by family and friends
David Lyle Boren, 83, was a former Oklahoma governor and perhaps the most powerful United States Senator of the 1980s. However, he was best known by generations as the long-serving, influential president of the University of Oklahoma.
Boren died on Thursday, surrounded by family and friends.
Long-time family spokesman and prolific biographical author Bob Burke broke the news on LinkedIn overnight Thursday.
Boren’s death was not unexpected. His health had been declining for some time.
OU campus news outlets, OU Daily and OU Nightly, were on the story quickly. Daily editor-in-chief Peggy Dodd wrote an obituary that chronicled Boren’s life, and his legacy at OU, but also noted the accusations made against him after he left the university.
The Daily also posted this collection of Boren photos throughout the years.
OU journalist Willie Gillespie, who works both on OU Daily and OU Nightly, posted this video obituary very early Thursday to vertical socials.
Oklahoma City TV covered Boren’s death Thursday morning: News 9, KFOR, KOCO, and Fox25.
Boren was a wildly popular conservative Democrat in a state that is now dominated by Republicans. He served one term as governor, 1975-79, and then spent 15 years as a United States Senator, specializing in foreign intelligence. Boren was instrumental in negotiating Nelson Mandela's release in 1990.
And then Boren was a wildly popular university president.
He came to the University of Oklahoma in 1994 and led OU to more than two decades of booming growth and success, both academically and athletically. To suggest he might have been the most popular person in Oklahoma, outside of perhaps Bob Stoops or Barry Switzer, was not a stretch.
However, allegations toward the end of his tenure at OU started to surface.
Specifically, Boren and an associate were accused of making unwanted sexual advances, particularly to young men. Tres Savage and the folks at NonDoc have covered this story better and more thoroughly than anybody.
That’s not all. Boren and the university were also accused of falsely reporting alumni giving to get a better rating in a magazine’s ‘best colleges’ survey. Yes, I know that OCPA is a political organization, but their explanation (link above) of the cloud that followed Boren in his later years (and the fight for transparency) was pretty spot-on.
Neither Boren nor his associate were ever indicted or charged with any wrongdoing.
Boren’s attorney told the OU Daily in 2020 that the accusations were the invention of Boren’s successor, James Gallogly.
Clark Brewster told the Daily:
“I’m obviously not surprised, and I’m eased only to the extent that I know that this is … it’s over,” Clark Brewster, Boren’s attorney, told The Daily on Tuesday. “This was started maliciously two-and-a-half years ago by (former OU President James) Gallogly, this started off with just an outsized vengeance by Mr. Gallogly who actually was quoted as saying ‘He’s the meanest S-O-B that Mr. Boren ever encountered and he will destroy him.’”
Because this is a developing story, insomuch that the coverage of Boren’s death is developing, I’m likely to update this story throughout the day. This ‘Oklahoma Memo’ Substack is dedicated to Oklahoma news and amplifying Oklahoma journalism. Your support is your subscription, whether it be free or paid.
The featured photo for this story was shot by Dana Branham, OU Daily, 2018.