Rear Admiral Ray Ackerman
Ian Ackerman, Portrait of Ray Ackerman, c. 1922 - 2012, oil on canvas, Oklahoma Hall of Fame and Gaylord-Pickens Museum, Portraits and Busts Collection.
Inducted: 1993
Hometown: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Branch: United States Navy
Born in 1922 in Pennsylvania, Rear Admiral Raymond B. "Ray" Ackerman moved to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in 1947. He was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1993.
Ackerman's first military experience was with the Citizens Military Training Corps, where he participated in military training without being enlisted for active duty. Ackerman enlisted in the Naval Reserve after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He was commissioned in 1943 as an ensign. He completed flight school in 1944 and was made a First Lieutenant. Ackerman spent five years active duty in the Navy as a fighter pilot and completed another thirty years in the Navy Reserve, where he achieved the rank of Rear Admiral. He served as both State President and National Director of the Navy League and as the National President of the Naval Reserve Association from 1969 to 1971.
After Ackerman settled in Oklahoma City, he began a career that included co-founding one of Oklahoma's largest and most successful advertising agencies, Ackerman McQueen, Inc. Advertising and Public Relations Agency, which he bought from George W. Knox in the early 1970s and partnered with the father-son team of Marvin and Angus McQueen. The agency was responsible for the BC Clark Jewelers' Christmas Sale jingle, perhaps Oklahoma's favorite and most well-known advertisement. Ackerman is known for his dedication to the Oklahoma River, the Bricktown Canal, and the Boathouse District. In 1971, the Secretary of the Navy awarded Rear Admiral Ackerman with the Navy Distinguished Public Service Award, the highest award from the Navy that a civilian can receive. Ackerman is also a member of the Oklahoma Military Hall of Fame.