Tulsa businessman and philanthropist dies

TULSA, Okla. (AP) _ Longtime Tulsa philanthropist and businessman Charles Schusterman died Saturday after a 17-year battle with leukemia. He was 65. <br><br>Schusterman died from acute respiratory distress

Sunday, December 31st 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

TULSA, Okla. (AP) _ Longtime Tulsa philanthropist and businessman Charles Schusterman died Saturday after a 17-year battle with leukemia. He was 65.

Schusterman died from acute respiratory distress syndrome _ 17 years after he was diagnosed with leukemia and given six months to live by a doctor.

Schusterman and his wife of 38 years, Lynn, founded their philanthropic organization, the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, in 1987.

It has given millions of dollars to support programs that enhance and enrich Jewish life in the United States, Israel and Russia.

``One of the reasons he worked so hard on behalf of so many charitable causes was to teach us the importance of 'tikkun olam' _ a Hebrew phrase meaning to repair the world,'' Lynn Schusterman said. ``He pushed forward, encouraged the rest of us to push with him and made us a promise that we would keep on pushing even after he died.''

Schusterman, the son of immigrants, graduated from the University of Oklahoma and after a stint in the U.S. Army entered the oilfield salvage business.

In 1971 he founded Samson Resources, which grew into the second largest independent gas producing company headquartered in Oklahoma.

When he was diagnosed with leukemia in 1983, Schusterman researched the disease on his own and underwent experimental treatment for the next 17 years of his life.

Family friend Melvin Dow said Schusterman's fight against leukemia was a defining battle in his life.

``No introduction of Charlie Schusterman would be complete without a reference to his valiant and heroic fight against leukemia,'' Dow said.

``If ever there was a poster child for never giving up, that poster child would be Charlie Schusterman.''

Schusterman is a member of the Oklahoma Hall of Fame and the Tulsa Hall of Fame. In 1998, he received the Humanitarian Award of the National Jewish Center for Immunology and Respiratory Medicine.

The Schustermans' foundation once gave $10 million to the University of Oklahoma to establish the Schusterman Center at OU-Tulsa.

OU President David Boren announced that the OU flag at the Schusterman Center will fly at half staff in his honor and bells on the Norman campus will toll at the commencement of his funeral service Monday. The service is scheduled for 2 p.m. at Temple Israel Congregation in Tulsa.

``Oklahoma has lost one of its most outstanding and generous citizens,'' Boren said. ``The University of Oklahoma family joins countless others in expressing our deep sympathy to the Schusterman family.