First Sergeant John W. Montgomery, DVM.
Deborah Bartels, Portrait of John W. Montgomery, July 2001, photograph, Oklahoma Hall of Fame and Gaylord-Pickens Museum, Portraits and Busts Collection.
Inducted: 2000
Hometown: Poteau, Oklahoma
Branch: United States Army Corps of Engineers
A Texas Native, First Sergeant John W. Montgomery, DVM, was born in 1917. In 1940, he graduated from Prairie View Agriculture and Mechanical College with a B.S. in agriculture. Montgomery served in World War II in the United States Army Corps of Engineers and achieved the rank of First Sergeant. After the war, he attended the Tuskegee Institute, now the Tuskegee University in Alabama, where he graduated with his doctorate in veterinary medicine.
Montgomery relocated to Poteau, Oklahoma, in 1951 and established the first licensed veterinary facility in LeFlore and surrounding counties. Facing racial discrimination, Montgomery worked diligently to establish himself as a member of the community. An active member of the Civil Rights Movement, he was instrumental in the integration of public schools, making Poteau one of the first districts in Oklahoma to accomplish this.
Montgomery's accomplishments include being the first African-American member of the Board of Regents for Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College, helping to establish Langston University's Tulsa and Oklahoma City campuses, and pushing to establish a Veterinary Teaching Hospital at Oklahoma State University. Montgomery dedicated his life to bettering Oklahoma communities for those around him. He worked diligently to provide and improve Oklahoma's educational opportunities. Montgomery was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 2000.
Impact Map
First Sergeant John Montgomery, DVM, ca. 1917-2014. Courtesy of Marlea Evans Burns, Project Montgomery, 2015.