Cecil O’Brate, husband, father, entrepreneur, Kansas oil and gas tycoon, and devoted philanthropist, passed away on January 20, 2024 in Garden City, Kansas at the age of 95.Cecil O’Brate was born in Enid, Oklahoma in November 1928. A child of the Depression, he had an internal, unwavering passion to change his fortune. A true entrepreneur from the start, he found ways to earn additional money to help provide for his family. Starting at the age of 10 he worked many jobs, including newspaper delivery boy, grocery store stockman, butcher, bread slicer salesman, gas station attendant, used car salesman, and glasses maker, among others.Facing hard financial times, Cecil left his home the summer before his senior year of high school and moved with his grandparents to a rented farm near Syracuse, Kansas. It was there that he discovered one of his greatest passions in life, farming, and met the love of his life, Frances Cole. They celebrated their 76th wedding anniversary on September 14, 2023. He spent his senior year of high school farming in Hamilton County and traveling across the Midwest with a custom harvesting crew to save money for college.After graduating from Syracuse High School in 1946, Cecil headed to Stillwater to attend Oklahoma A & M College, putting him within an hour of his family in Enid. To choose his educational path, Cecil walked across campus to the OSU Library Building to research which degrees earned the highest salaries, and he subsequently enrolled as a structural engineering major. To pay his own way through college, Cecil hand-set pins in a bowling alley, assembled farm equipment on the weekends, packaged ice cream at the campus dairy, and traded cars. He also enrolled in Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) to earn a few extra dollars each month.In the fall of 1948, with thousands of men returning from World War II and jobs scarce, Cecil received an offer he could not refuse – 3,000 acres of farm ground to rent and help his grandfather. So he decided to put college aside after two years and move back to Kansas to farm and ranch. This initial farm ground was contracted under an atypical 30-day lease. For nearly two decades, Cecil focused on being a successful farmer and rancher and learning invaluable lessons along the way: how to find ingenious ways to fix equipment; how to pick up side jobs and make advantageous business deals; and how to take risks and manage them efficiently. Today, Cecil owns and operates tens of thousands of acres of farm ground in Kansas and Colorado, including the original 3,000 leased acres.In 1966, he saw an opportunity and purchased Palmer Mfg. & Tank Inc. When he purchased the company, Palmer had only two welders and manufactured tanks for the agriculture industry. When he sold the company in 2013, it employed over 200 people, expanded into oilfield, industrial, and municipal tanks and posted millions of dollars in annual sales. Five years later, the company that purchased Palmer faced manufacturing challenges coupled with declining sales and approached him to buy it back. In 2018, Cecil repurchased Palmer Mfg. & Tank Inc., and it continues to operate today.Cecil was always one to hatch new ideas, take risks, and expand his empire. As a large scale farmer, he saw the value in equipment and eventually owned John Deere and Case-IH farm implement dealerships. He also purchased a handful of community banks across western Kansas and brought his own style of banking that focused on profit. He did have his share of pains along the way; he learned one lesson from an investment in a bowling alley that eventually failed, because there were too many owners with different ideas and no direction. After that, he preferred to have a controlling interest in any businesses and manage them his way.Cecil was most well known for is his successful venture into oil and gas production. In 1984, he began investing in oil and gas, and established American Warrior, Inc. which is now one of the largest independent oil and gas producers in the state of Kansas. He rolled the profits from the sale of his banks directly into drilling new oil wells. Despite his late start in the industry, Cecil was a confidant risk taker. Some said he could smell oil. He took pride in his ability to evaluate seismic maps and interpret downhole logs. He owned an array of companies within the oil and gas industry including: royalty, oil field chemical sales, drilling companies, operating, and 3D seismic.As alternative fuels came onto the energy scene, Cecil saw the promise of ethanol as a financial opportunity for his farming operation and the rest of western Kansas. Cecil was an early investor in Conestoga Energy Holdings. When the new project faced challenges in public buy-in and infrastructure investment, some early investors became nervous and wanted to sell their shares. Cecil bought all the shares that he could. Again, his instincts proved correct as Conestoga has grown to be one of the leaders in the ethanol space. Cecil was proud of Conestoga and the value that it has brought to the crop, cattle, and energy sectors in the region.Toward the latter part of his career, Cecil forayed into larger real estate development projects in the community he has called home for more than 60 years – Garden City, Kansas. Since 2012, Cecil has invested in hotels, restaurants, housing developments, an indoor water park, and most recently a large indoor sports complex. These assets have driven further economic growth and brought new vibrancy to the local community. By enacting his vision, others have invested similarly in Garden City, and it is now the primary economic hub between Wichita, Kansas and Denver, Colorado.Cecil’s ultimate pride was sharing the fruits of his successful career to help people grow. Over the years, he has donated time and resources to numerous charities in the area to help those that are less fortunate, most often children. As Cecil once said in a Boy Scout awards ceremony acceptance speech, “I give money to youth programs because we should help these young people learn and have experiences. The adults, they can help themselves.”In the fall of 2013, Cecil and Frances established The O'Brate Foundation, which awards college scholarships and teaches life skills to students, most of whom grew up in the foster care system or below poverty level. Since 2013, almost 600 students have been on traditional college scholarship, and the Foundation has provided nearly $7,000,000 in scholarships. For the spring semester of 2024, there are more than 150 students enrolled and receiving a scholarship. Moreover, the Foundation provides mentorship to the students, teaching them financial literacy, business etiquette, and other important skills. The O'Brate Foundation is making a positive difference in the lives of hundreds of young men and women and their families by providing a chance that otherwise might not be available.Anyone who knew Cecil in the latter part of his life could see that Cecil had real Cowboy spirit. Cecil attended as many home Oklahoma State University football, basketball, golf, and baseball games as he could, always proudly wearing his orange. He befriended the OSU athletic director, and the two arranged for Cecil to build the best baseball stadium in all of college athletics. O’Brate Stadium officially opened on February 24, 2021 to kick off the 2021 season. President George W. Bush, whom Cecil had become friends with over the years, joined him to throw out the first pitch in a dedication ceremony on May 20, 2021. Cecil took great pride in OSU Baseball, the 3,500 seat stadium, and the grand American flag that flies over it.Overall, Cecil was not a man that could be described as either boastful or flashy. He wore the same few pairs of JC Penny slacks and button down shirts to the office each day, even into his nineties. He would add a well-worn suit jacket if it were a more formal event, like meeting with Members of Congress in Washington DC, as he enjoyed doing. And just as he was not boastful, neither could he be described as loquacious. Instead, Cecil imparted his wisdom in one-line quips and short stories of past memories of hard times. He had a lot of lines that his family and friends will remember him by, but one more than any. His answer to any challenge that he saw as a worthwhile endeavor was “Make it happen,” which is the mantra prominently displayed in O’Brate Stadium at Oklahoma State University.Cecil’s success was due to his unwavering belief in hard work and his entrepreneurial spirit. He exuded these values and passed them on to his numerous employees, whom he valued and treated with respect. As boss, he was the first to arrive at work and the last to leave.Cecil was politically active and fiscally conservative, and as such, he gave generously to Republican Party, helping many Kansas politicians in their campaigns for office and befriending them along the way. In 2021, Fox Business aired a documentary to showcase Cecil’s life and career, Titans of Business, the Cecil O’Brate Story. He was a mentor to many over his 95 years, and his spirit lives on in the lessons he taught to others. As Cecil shared often with his Foundation students, “I have found no substitute for an honest day’s work, an inquisitive mind, and a desire to always do more.”He was recognized widely for his work, but some of the awards he was most proud of were:• 50 Kansans You Should Know, 2016• Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, Oklahoma State University 2018• Kansas Business Hall of Fame 2020• National Stripper Well Hall of Fame 2021• Oklahoma State University Alumni Hall of Fame, 2023Cecil is survived by his wife of 76 years Frances, who continues to reside in Garden City, KS; four sons Patrick (Jennifer) of Houston, TX, Michael (Judy) of Garden City, KS, Steve (Bonnie) of Garden City, KS, and Mark (Marilyn) of Bentonville, AR; eight grandchildren, Twelve great-grandchildren, and one great-great granddaughter.Funeral Service will be at 2:00 PM Friday at First United Methodist Church in Garden City with Rev Jim Akins officiating. Friends may call from Noon to 8:00 PM Thursday with family present from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM at Garnand Funeral Home. The service will be livestreamed on the Garnand Funeral Home facebook page. In lieu of flowers memorials are suggested to The O’Brate Foundation in care of Garnand Funeral Home. Condolences may be posted at www.garnandfuneralhomes.com