LAWTON – Great Plains Technology Center Superintendent Clarence Fortney will retire June 30, after a 45-year career at the school.
Fortney was hired in 1979 to fill the position of short-term adult welding instructor. His educational and career journey advanced from welding instructor to coordinator of adult training & development from 1988 to 1994 and then director of adult training & development from 1994 until 2006. From there he advanced to the director of secondary education and then director of instruction. In 2009, he was named deputy superintendent; a position he held until hired as the superintendent in 2016. Fortney had received his superintendent’s certificate after about 20 years of night and weekend classes.
His tie to the welding program at GPTC actually goes back about 50 years, when, as a junior at Lawton High School, he enrolled at Great Plains Area Vocational Technical School (now GPTC). In May of 1977, Fortney received his certificate and also graduated from LHS. His industrial experience includes working as a certified pipe welder with Brown & Root when Goodyear began building their tire plant in Lawton in the late 1970s.
Coworkers encouraged Fortney, at the age of 19, to go back to school instead of making construction a fulltime career. He enrolled at Cameron University and declared a major of elementary education. He went on to earn a Bachelor of Science in education from the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond and a Master of Education from the University of Oklahoma in Norman.
The GPTC board accepted Fortney’s retirement letter at their recent meeting on Feb. 4 and also promoted Deputy Superintendent Joelle Jolly to succeed him. Jolly will begin her new duties on July 1. She was named deputy superintendent in March 2022.
A GPTC employee since 2005, Jolly previously served as director of student services and director of health sciences and STEM education. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Colorado State University and a master’s degree in educational leadership from Southeastern Oklahoma State University.