Photos by Mike SImons, Stephen Pingry and Tulsa World Archive. A Tulsa native and independent oil operator, LaFortune was the city's mayor for four terms, from 1970 to 1978. Prior to that, he served as city streets commissioner.
Tulsa says goodbye to a man who lived a life in humility and public service to a city he transformed into a progressive metropolitan destination. The influence of Robert J. LaFortune on Tulsa cannot be overstated.
The city is better because LaFortune served as its champion, leader and conscience. LaFortune died on March 27 at age 97.
Through the decades, LaFortune had a friendly relationship with many Tulsa World reporters and editors, who spoke respectfully of his intellectual curiosity and non-confrontational style.
LaFortune read every word of the Tulsa World daily, often bringing up current events to his friends and family, including his nephew and former Mayor Bill LaFortune and grandson, current Mayor G.T. Bynum.
Born in Tulsa in 1927, he graduated from Cascia Hall before serving in the U.S. Merchant Marines and earning a chemical engineering degree from Purdue. He returned to Tulsa and worked eight decades in the energy industry.
LaFortune believed that Tulsans were capable of doing big things, and he had a skill for mobilizing change. His elected public service was relatively short at 14 years (six years as street commissioner and eight years as mayor), but his accomplishments loom large.
Under his leadership, Tulsa’s expressway system, including the construction of the Broken Arrow Expressway, was largely completed. The downtown, nine-block Williams Center was finished, featuring the 52-story Bank of Oklahoma Tower and the Performing Arts Center. He was part of finishing the Keystone Dam and opening the Port of Catoosa. He also had a hand in the city’s annexation of about 100 square miles, tripling the size of Tulsa.
When LaFortune was first approached to run for mayor, he declined, saying he wanted to learn more about city issues and operations first. Instead, he ran for street commissioner because it aligned with his engineering expertise.
In his 1964 campaign, he said, “I believe it is necessary for every citizen to take some active part in government.” He later served as mayor from 1970 to 1978.
LaFortune was not attention-seeking or combative, preferring a consensus-building approach. In a 1974 profile written by Tulsa World reporter Ann Patton, she described him as “a shy and sensitive man … who scorned public display and excess.”
His service coincided with significant national upheaval, including the Vietnam War and civil rights movements. Through it all, LaFortune kept his focus on Tulsa.
As Tulsa World reporter Randy Krehbiel wrote in the book “Tulsa’s Daily World”:
“LaFortune’s management skills and innate decency made him Tulsa’s most popular mayor. A Republican whose aversion to partisanship sometimes irked party regulars, LaFortune won re-election three times against token opposition; despite pleas that he run for governor or Congress, he retired from politics, undefeated, in 1978.”
In political retirement, LaFortune remained a pillar in Tulsa and Oklahoma, supporting a host of causes as a board member and donor. He was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame and the Tulsa Hall of Fame, along with receiving many other honors.