Living the Positive Life Charles and Lynn Schusterman find no downside in lives based on family and the responsibility that comes with success. BY JUDITH WALL harles Schusterman looks out the window of his 20t''- floorC conference room in down- town Tulsa. Right over there is where he spent much of his childhood-in a poor neighbor- hood on the north side . His family home is long gone, torn down with the rest ofthe neigh- borhood to make way for a pub- lic housing project. Schusterman has come a long way since those early years. He is now one of the nation's most successful inde- pendent oil and gas producers . With his wife, Lynn, he has created a far- ranging philanthropic foundation that currently is valued at $50 million and growing . "I'm fortunate to have had that range in my life," he says . A compact, youthful-looking man with white hair, Charles is in shirt sleeves . In recent years, that is al- most the only way one sees him, sum- Charles and Lynn Schusterman, shown in the boardroom of Samson Investment Co. in mer or winter . He has developed a Tulsa, spent their early years ensuring business success and family solidarity . Today, physical intolerance to heat-a side through the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, they direct much of effect of his treatment for leukemia . their energy toward humanitarian and educational causes . He experiences severe pain as tem- 1997 SUMMER peratures rise above 70 degrees . Of- Club, the city was still fairly segregated neglect the home front. He credits Lynn ten he holds a cup of ice water to cool into Jewish and non-Jewish enclaves . with "supplying the discipline" when it his hands. Most social clubs were barred to Jews. came to family matters . Lynn joins her husband in the con- "I felt different," Lynn says . While their three children were ference room to provide her perspec- Living through the era ofthe Holo- growing up, Lynn insisted that the tive on family and philanthropy . A caust has had a profound effect on family eat together every night. If the petite, pretty woman, she is deeply Lynn . "The Holocaust helped me dis- children had sports activities, dinner involved in the Charles and Lynn cover who I am," she explains . "I've was delayed until the last game was Schusterman Family Foundation. always thought about those broken over . And no family vacation was ever Atheme quickly emerges from their families and people who didn't have canceled because of a business crisis . reminiscences-responsibility . "The children and I spent a lot To their family . Their employ- oftime waiting in the car while ees. Their city and state . Mem- Charlie made phone calls," she bers of their faith. Those less adds with a laugh, "but we al- fortunate-especially children. ways went." Making a difference is some- The couple recalls a particu- thing they think about continu- lar family vacation to the ously. Lynn says she tries to former Soviet Union in 1986 . live her life so she has no re- They were able to make con- grets. Charles talks about the tact with members of the obligations that financial suc- Leningrad Jewish community, cess brings . which in those Iron Curtain Charles already had gradu- days was operating under- ated from OU and launched ground . Son Jay helped his his career when he and Lynn dad smuggle in books . Lynn first met-on a blind date ar- and daughter Stacy wore mul- ranged by a mutual friend. tiple pairs of panty hose-a Charles had been working on a valuable black-market com- well and was three-and-a-half modity-which they peeled off hours late arriving at Lynn's and gave away . They saw first- Oklahoma City home . Even hand the terrible conditions so, Lynn recalls being quite under which Russian Jews impressed with the youngman were living. from Tulsa. The family set sail from On a later date, Charles took Leningrad on July third. On her along while he solicited the Fourth ofJuly, the captain contributions for the United ofthe Norwegian liner ordered Jewish Appeal. "I could see the Stars and Stripes to be Benefactor Lynn Schusterman accepts a framed that he was a fair and compas- flown, and the Americans on photograph of the Succat Shalom Schusterman Center sionate person," Lynn recalls . board gathered to sing "God for Children and Their Families in Jerusalem from "My father always felt strongly Bless America." Charles tells Michael Schneider, left, executive vice president of the that one should help the less about the experience with tears American Jewish Joint Distribution committee (JDC), and fortunate . I saw that same in his eyes . It was a beautiful, Alan Gill, director of federation relations for JDC in Israel . quality in Charlie ." sunny day . The flag of the Charles insists that he ex- country he loved flew overhead . perienced very little discrimi He thought about the desper nation as a Jewish youngster growing the same opportunities that Charlie ate plight of Russian Jews they had up in Tulsa. The city has always had and I have had to be parents and see left behind . "And I thought of how a strong Jewish community that is our children grow up . lucky we were to be born in this great well integrated into the community at "Family is the most important thing big, wonderful country-to live in the large. in the world," she adds . wonderful city of Tulsa." Lynn feels differently about her Charles nods in agreement . He ad- "That trip to Russia is part of why growing-up years in Oklahoma City. mits, however, that with the lure of a I do what I do," says Lynn, who has Even though her parents belonged to career he genuinely loved always tug- been back to Eastern Europe many the Oklahoma City Golf and Country ging at him, it would have been easy to times since. Now that the chi children are 10 SOONER MAGAZINE "The pleasure of seeing someone's concept work is grown, she spends a sizable portion more interesting than That was the turning point, of her life volunteering for the seeing the money flow in." Charles says . "For the first time in American Jewish Joint Distribu- my career, I would have extra tion Committee, a humanitarian funds." During the flight to Los organization that assists impover Charles says . And timing is impor- Angeles, he planned how he was going ished Jews and other people around tant . Luck, skill and timing were to leverage those funds and drew an the world. "I want these people to see never in sync for his father, but they organizational chart for the people he that there's another human beingwho all came together for Charles in the was going to hire. And even though is willing to stand up for them and early 1970s. his company was involved only in mar- work for them. They experienced the "That was when I saw that the world ginal oil production and did not "have Holocaust andsuffered persecutionbe- supply of oil was starting to bump up a single cubic foot of gas," he decided yond imagination, yet they are brave against demand, and it looked like the to convert Samson into a "fairly deep, enough to be Jews again." price was goingto go up," he recalls . "So technologically sophisticated com- Charles' illness has not kept him I decided to make a big bet." pany" that drilled for natural gas. from his business, and he still works The bet involved raising the neces- "Gas was under exploited," he ex- every day at the company he founded, sary financing and buying all of plains . "There was money tobemade ." Samson Investment Co. The company Amerada Hess' oil production in Cali- Samson is now the largest natural gas producer headquartered in Okla- homa, with operations in 16 states and three foreign countries . After 40 yearsin the oil and gas business, profit is still the bottom line for Charles, but making more money is not what keeps him interested. "What excites me now is providing capital for the people who work for me to enhance their careers," he says . "The pleasure ofseeing someone's con- cept work is more interesting than seeing the money flow in." More and more, however, he is de- voting his time to the Schusterman Family Foundation and gradually passing leadership of the company to senior management, including his daughter, Stacy. Charles and Lynn formed the foun- dation in 1987 to support Oklahoma- based, non-sectarian charitable groups that focus on education, children and community service . The foundation alsofunds programs that enhance Jew- ish life locally, nationally and inter- Charles Schusterman, right, counts as his proudest moments in life the births of his nationally . six grandchildren, an emotion obvious here with wife Lynn and their granddaughter "We provide resources that help Shira in Israel . people accomplish more than they would have otherwise," Charles says. name honors his late father, Sam fornia. It paid off big time . Charles Examples ofOklahoma organizations Schusterman, a Russian immigrant recalls the moment he got the news . that have benefited from Schusterman who struggled to make ends meet at At 4 o'clock on an October afternoon in Family Foundation grants are the his oil field salvage business in De- 1973, while waiting for a flight in the Parent Child Center in Tulsa, Planned pression-era Tulsa. San Francisco airport, he called his Parenthood, the Tulsa City-County While one must have the skills to office and learned that the price of oil Library System and the Oklahoma take advantage ofopportunities, there had tripled as a result of the Arab oil School for Science and Mathematics.