News Editor When the bell tower — a cherished icon from the former Wentworth Military Academy campus — was dedicated at the WMA Museum park in honor of WMA alumnus John Groendyke in 2022, museum co-chair and co-founder George Hittner posed the question “What does John Groendyke mean to us?”

Hittner answered his own question with the remark “everything.”

After Groendyke passed away on June 13, Hittner in a social media post echoed those sentiments.

“On behalf of the Wentworth Military Academy Museum Executive Committee, we join the entire Wentworth family in mourning the passing of John D. Groendyke, one of the most accomplished, generous, loyal, and consequential alumni in the long history of Wentworth Military Academy…While words are inadequate to capture the full measure of his life, his legacy can be seen across every chapter of Wentworth’s story: as a cadet, as a soldier, as a business leader, as a public servant, as a philanthropist, and as one of the great guardians of Wentworth’s memory,” wrote Hittner.

“John D. Groendyke enrolled as a cadet at Wentworth Military Academy on September 8, 1957. From the beginning, he embodied the ideals Wentworth sought to instill in its cadets: discipline, leadership, scholarship, athletic excellence, loyalty, and service. During his years as a junior high, high school, and junior college cadet, he was a member of the Honor Guard, the Wentworth Honor Society, the National Honor Society, and the “W Club.” He lettered in football, basketball, and track a remarkable nineteen times, and in his senior year of high school served as captain of all three teams…

“After Wentworth, Mr. Groendyke continued to achieve the honorable. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Business from Oklahoma State University and his law degree from the University of Oklahoma. He served as a Captain in the United States Army before returning to Enid, Oklahoma, to join Groendyke Transport, Inc., the family business founded by his father, H.C. Groendyke, in 1932. He would go on to serve as Chairman of the Board of Groendyke Transport, helping lead one of the largest tanktruck carriers serving the continental United States, Canada, and Mexico.

“But to those of us in the Wentworth family, John Groendyke’s place in history is especially sacred because of what he meant to the Academy itself. In 1989, he became a member of the Permanent Superintendent’s Council. In 1990, he joined the Wentworth Board of Trustees, where he served through 2022, including many years as Chairman, until the Benevolent Corporation officially dissolved following Wentworth’s closing. He was inducted into the Wentworth Athletic Hall of Fame and received the Stephen G. Wentworth Society Award. In 1994, the historic Wentworth Student Union was renamed Groendyke Hall in his honor. For the last thirty years of the Academy’s existence, John D. Groendyke was Wentworth’s primary philanthropic donor. He was instrumental in establishing the Wentworth Military Academy Museum and the Wentworth Military Academy Museum Endowment. Without his generosity, vision, and steadfast belief in the importance of preserving Wentworth’s history, our ability to protect and share the Academy’s legacy would not be what it is today.

“There are alumni who loved Wentworth. There are alumni who served Wentworth. There are alumni who gave generously to Wentworth. John Groendyke did all of these things, and he did them for a lifetime. He was not merely a distinguished alumnus. He was, in the deepest sense, one of Wentworth’s standard-bearers. His life reflected the very words that generations of cadets carried with them from Lexington into the world: loyalty, leadership, and service…

“In the days ahead, the Wentworth Military Academy Museum will announce an appropriate tribute to honor Mr. Groendyke’s extraordinary life and his unmatched devotion to Wentworth Military Academy.”