M
ike Schulz rode a John Deere tractor at a young age. His father, Denzle Schulz, worked at the United States Department of Agriculture and was a cotton farmer in southwest Oklaho- ma. Young Schulz was raised working the fields, chopping and irrigating cotton. He recalls standing on his parents’ 80-acre farm while airplanes cruised across the sky from the Altus
Air Force Base. Today, as he sits at their own farmhouse built in the 1930s, surrounded by soft white cotton bolls, he fondly remembers the passion his dad instilled in him. “He put me on a John Deere tractor when I was eight years old. Not sure he knew the passion that
started in me when he did that,” Schulz recalls with teary eyes. The once young apprentice is now a farmer by trade. But what Schulz and his father did not foresee
was that one day the farmer’s son would serve in public office. In January, Schulz became president pro tem of the Oklahoma Senate, a life event he calls “God’s deal.” “This is God’s deal, not my deal. He has directed me to where I am today. I have really felt His hand and His direction in this. Without His nudging, it probably would not be the path I would have chosen, but I’m following His plan,” Schulz says with a smile. The president pro tem is the upper chamber’s top leadership position. In addition to leading the
Republican majority caucus and setting its agenda, the pro tem oversees the operations of the Oklahoma Senate. Schulz’s father passed away in 2005 from lung cancer. He used to ask his son what he would be when he grew up. “I always told dad I would be a farmer, and that is still my life calling. But dad never got to see me
serving in the state Senate,” Schulz says. He stays busy maintaining a 1,000-acre farm operation near Altus where he grows cotton, wheat grain,
sorghum, sunflower, mung beans, soy beans and canola. As he begins his service as Senate president pro tem, Schulz looks forward to leaving a legacy that will positively impact the state of Oklahoma while empowering farm operations.
FEBRUARY 2017 13
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