TAUW LEGENDS: Tim Lyons
The TAUW Legends video series preserves the voices and stories of those who shaped our first century of service. As part of our Centennial celebration, Jesse Boudiette, president of Propeller Consulting and Centennial Committee member, sat down with Tim Lyons, who co-chaired the 2021 annual fundraiser with Karen Keith.
Join us in continuing Tim’s legacy of compassion and community impact. Your gift today in honor of Tim helps write the next chapter of our story, ensuring that future generations will have access to the same life-changing services that have touched so many lives over the past century.
interview highlights
Jesse Boudiette: You mentioned being part of a workplace campaign. You’re CEO of TTCU, so why not just involve yourself in this? Why do you get your organization, your company, and your employees involved?
Tim Lyons: Well, obviously, there’s the need. We cannot do this without everybody in Tulsa participating, and it’s important that more and more companies participate. Number one, because the magnitude of the job at hand is just so large. And we need everybody’s help. It’s that simple. If every person in Tulsa, if every employed person in Tulsa would just give a little bit. And so I always want to challenge other organizations, other companies, nonprofits even. I know a lot of the nonprofits participate, but challenge those organizations and those leaders to inspire their people to give back to the community. Again, it’s always going back to this question: What kind of community do we want Tulsa to be? Do we want it to be generous and giving and kind and taking care of the least of those amongst us? Or do we want the opposite of all that? And so every business leader should consider involving their team members in the United Way.
Jesse: You mentioned visiting partner agencies. How does it change your understanding of where the dollars go when you actually tour one of those organizations and see the real need and work being done?
Tim: You know, one of my favorite stories was with the Salvation Army. They do a lot of different kinds of things—they feed people, they have an overnight shelter, they have counseling services, and one of the programs they had was kind of interim housing for families. We met a young couple who was in an apartment provided by the Salvation Army. This family had been living out of their car for two years. And it’s interesting—you might think they’re just poor, uneducated people who haven’t learned how to get along in life, but that wasn’t the case. They were actually well-educated but had fallen on hard times, struggled with substance abuse, and things just dominoed on them.
So they entered the Salvation Army program, and it provided housing for about six months, got him into Tulsa Welding School. They had a young child as well, and they got them involved with a local church that took them in. Then, they got him a job once he finished at Tulsa Welding School—it was a high-paying job, by the way. When I met them, they were just a couple of weeks away from closing on their first home, purchasing their own home. All that happened through the Salvation Army, through their various support services and connections with others like the church. It was just amazing to see that.
And I’ll tell you, the gratitude in their hearts—they just gushed and gushed gratitude. They were so thankful for what the Salvation Army had done. And like myself with Big Brothers Big Sisters, they probably had no idea where the money was coming from. Of course, by meeting them, they learned more about that, and that just raised their gratitude all the more.