Harold Stunkard

Harold Charles Stunkard (June 28, 1909 - June 30, 1995) was an American truck driver who won the Oklahoma Motor Carrier Association’s Driver of the Year award in 1960.
Early Life
Stunkard was born on June 28, 1909 in Tulsa, Oklahoma at his pioneer family’s farm. He was the second of four children born to Charles Stunkard and Mary Belle Gibbons.
Harold attended school up through the eighth grade.
In 1930, Harold met and married his wife, Dorothy Slankard, and they would remain married for 65 years.
Early Career
As a young man, Harold’s life focused mainly on farming but when money got difficult during the Depression, he started hauling produce with his father-in-law, W.O. “Pop” Slankard. During their time together, they grew their operation to eleven trucks and trailers. The business was located in Tulsa, but it either flourished or died with their major customer, Safeway.
In 1937, he was the first person on the scene when five persons were injured - three fatally - near Okmulgee, Oklahoma. He administered emergency first aid to the victims until professional help arrived.
In 1947, an accident in Missouri found Stunkard in a life-saving role when he rendered aid to four critically injured teen-agers.<ref name="DOTY" /><ref name="Breeding" />
He was also credited in 1950 with preventing a serious explosion near Pittsburg, Kansas when he stopped his tractor-trailer and extinguished the flames in an automobile which caught fire on the highway.<ref name="DOTY" /><ref name="Breeding" />
Oklahoma Driver of the Year Award
Harold Stunkard was named “Driver of the Month” for Oklahoma in June 1960, and later that year in November, he was honored as Truck Driver of the Year by the Oklahoma Motor Carriers Association after completing more than two million miles of accident-free driving.<ref name="Breeding" /> He was presented the Driver of the Year Award by Clifford Phillips, district supervisor for the Interstate Commerce Commission.<ref name="Presented" />
Retirement
In 1962, Harold Stunkard retired from Hugh Breeding Inc. after 19 years of service.<ref name="DOTY" />
Stunkard resumed farming, raising both cattle and crops.<ref name="Obit" />

He was a member of the First Christian Church in Jenks and a member of the Masonic Lodge.<ref name="Obit" />
Harold Stunkard would pass away in Tulsa, Oklahoma on June 30, 1995 at the age of 86 following a lengthy illness.<ref name="Obit" />
Notes and references

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