2013 CHS Distinguished Alumni
Delbert Heskett
Class of 1958
Delbert Heskett was born near Guthrie to parents Lesse Heskett and Cordell Payne Heskett. The date was November 16, 1940, Oklahoma's 33rd Statehood Day. The family moved to a farm near Crescent when he was a small child.
Delbert entered Crescent Schools in 1946 and graduated in 1958. In high school he played football and was on the Honor Roll the last two years. At graduation he received the Danforth Award.
He attended Oklahoma State University from 1958 to 1962 and during his junior year was selected to be in the Sigma Tau scholastic engineering fraternity. He was a member of the Army ROTC for all four years and was commissioned a 2nd lieutenant at graduation. In his senior year he changed his major from chemical engineering to pre-medicine and chemistry. Following graduation he entered the Army artillery.
Lieutenant Heskett served as a missile platoon leader in Korea and an artillery fire direction officer at Fort Hood, Texas. On December 26, 1963 he married Geneva McCraw from Konawa, Oklahoma. They have four children.
Following discharge from active duty he entered medical school at the University of Oklahoma. While in medical school he served in the Army Reserve and was promoted to captain in 1966. He graduated in 1968 with an M.D. degree and returned to the Army in the medical corps for his internship. He then entered an anesthesiology residency at the University of Oklahoma, graduating in 1971. He is certified as a Fellow of the American College of Anesthesiologists and is a Diplomate of the American Board of Anesthesiology.
Doctor Heskett entered private practice in Tulsa in 1971 with Associated Anesthesiologists and remained with them until December 2004. While in practice he volunteered to teach medical students, residents and allied health personnel through the University of Oklahoma School of Medicine. He started as an instructor rising through the ranks to Clinical Professor of Anesthesiology.
Doctor Heskett served on Associated Anesthesiologists' board of directors for over 20 years, including five terms as president. He served as Chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology at Saint Francis Hospital and as President of the Oklahoma Society of Anesthesiologists. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the American Society of Anesthesiologists for six years and was in the ASA's House of Delegates for nine years. He was a founding member of Tulsans for Life and spent many hours educating people about the humanity of the unborn child.
He returned to the Army Reserve as a major and later lieutenant colonel. He was called to active duty for Desert Shield in 1990 which became Desert Storm in 1991. He served as Chief of Anesthesia and Operative Service in a hospital in the combat area. He is a Life Member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
Following retirement in 2004 he moved to Arlington, Texas to be near his grandchildren. He returned to part-time practice with Pinnacle Anesthesia in 2005 and retired again in 2007. He has been active in various charitable and civic organizations. Even living in Texas, Delbert and Geneva still celebrate Oklahoma's Statehood Day.
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