As a Summit Financial employee, I worked with Daniel Keating for the last 17 years as his secretary. My first thought about Mr. Keating is he was a true gentleman in every way. He was with Summit for 20-plus years and was dedicated to this company.
He shared the importance of having insurance with many businesses not only in the Tulsa area but also throughout the state of Oklahoma.
Mr. Keating was also interested in helping the Native Americans continue their education and in 2002 was appointed by President George W. Bush to the President’s Board of Advisors on Tribal Colleges and Universities. During this time, he made a point to meet with the Chief of each Nation and introduced them of ways to help their high school students further their education by preparing them for college.
Education became of great importance in the following years as Mr. Keating began to be more involved locally and statewide in wanting not only to help the schools but also get the communities be involved with their schools. He was on the State Board of Education and strived to encourage those educating the students.
As I read many articles of ways that could help with benefiting the schools, I saw how disturbed he was that the school system was not improving, and test scores did not improve. Needless to say, seeing the City of Tulsa Public Schools become better was of high importance.
Mr. Keating was also involved in politics. In 2006, he ran for State Treasurer because he wanted to see out state prosper and become “great again.” In the last years he was a great contributor and served as co-chairman for the state of Oklahoma for the campaign of President Donald Trump.
It was an exciting time to have Mr. Trump come to visit the city of Tulsa and Mr. Keating was a great influence on making this happen. I also remember when Governor Mitt Romney ran for president, again Mr. Keating was a part of the campaign and had a brunch where Mr. Romney was the honored guest.
In closing, I want to say farewell Mr. Keating. You will be greatly missed here at Summit and across our city and state. Thank you for being a part of our lives.