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Fred Drummond: The Osage County Rancher Who Also Ran a Bank

A Stanford-trained banker who came home at his father's death to run Osage County cattle country and then spent decades protecting it.

Who Was Frederick F. Drummond?

Frederick Ford Drummond, known as Fred, was an Oklahoma rancher, banker and conservation leader who spent most of his working life in Osage County. He was born July 13, 1931, in Enid and raised in Hominy. He died October 18, 2020, in Pawhuska at age 89. The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum inducted him into its Hall of Great Westerners in 2006.

What set him apart from many ranchers was that he trained as both an animal scientist and a banker, and he used both skills to run a large ranch.

Education and the Army

Drummond graduated from Hominy High School and attended Oklahoma A&M, now Oklahoma State University. He earned a bachelor's degree in animal science and an Army ROTC commission as a second lieutenant in 1953. He served as an artillery officer in West Germany during the Cold War, then earned an MBA from Stanford in 1957 on the GI Bill.

Checking Cattle Collateral in Kansas City

After Stanford he joined United Missouri Bank of Kansas City, first as a cattle inspector who checked livestock pledged as loan collateral and then as a loan officer. A magazine profile reports that he found the best way to do the job was to go where cattle buyers gathered, in hotel lobbies and meeting rooms in San Antonio, Pawhuska and Emporia, Kansas.

The job put him in direct contact with the people who bought and financed cattle in the region.

Taking Over the Drummond Ranch

In 1958 his father, Frederick Gentner Drummond (1895-1958), died, and Fred returned to Oklahoma to run the family ranch. The ranches the elder Drummond had established in Osage County during the Great Depression covered about 25,000 acres at the time of his death, according to the Oklahoma Historical Society material on the family.

He had belonged to the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association since childhood. By 2002 he was training his son Ford to become a fourth-generation Drummond rancher.

The Key to Drummond's Success

Drummond's record shows a man who combined the three jobs a large ranch requires: managing land and cattle, understanding credit, and keeping good relationships with neighbors and organizations. The sources are obituaries and short biographies, so these points describe documented choices rather than private strategy.

He also worked in banking and oil alongside ranching.

  • He trained in both animal science and finance, with degrees from Oklahoma A&M and Stanford.
  • He learned lending from the collateral side by inspecting pledged cattle for a Kansas City bank.
  • He kept a banking role for decades: he chaired the Cleveland Bank for 50 years and chaired the Federal Land Bank of Oklahoma.
  • He learned the oil business on the job and worked as an independent oil producer.
  • He prepared the next generation: by 2002 he was training his son to run the ranch.

Conservation and Leadership

Drummond was a founding member and past chairman of The Nature Conservancy of Oklahoma and helped establish the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in Osage County. He chaired the Pawhuska library and hospital boards, the Osage County Historical Society and the Grand River Dam Authority, and sat on the Gilcrease Museum board.

In the cattle industry he served as president of the Osage County Cattlemen's Association and the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association.

Honors and Learning More

Besides the Hall of Great Westerners, he is listed in the Oklahoma Hall of Fame and the OSU Alumni Hall of Fame. The Osage County Cattlemen's Association Hall of Fame and the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association's Cattleman of the Year honor also appear in his obituary. His obituary notes that memorial donations were requested for the Drummond Home Museum in Hominy, the town where he grew up, or for The Nature Conservancy of Oklahoma. He also chaired the Osage County Historical Society and belonged to the Oklahoma Historical Society. Read the Drovers report on his death for a concise summary.

For more on Osage County ranching, see the ranching section of farm.FM and a farm.FM story about tallgrass ranching.

Timeline

  1. 1931Born July 13 in Enid, Oklahoma
  2. 1953Earns B.S. in animal science and Army ROTC commission
  3. 1957Earns MBA from Stanford
  4. 1958Returns to Oklahoma to run the family ranch after his father's death
  5. 2002Training his son as a fourth-generation Drummond rancher
  6. 2006Inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners
  7. 2020Dies October 18 in Pawhuska

Frequently asked questions

Who was Fred Drummond?

Frederick Ford Drummond (1931-2020) was an Osage County, Oklahoma, rancher and banker who ran the family Drummond Ranch from 1958 and chaired the Cleveland Bank for 50 years.

What did Fred Drummond do for conservation?

He was a founding member and past chairman of The Nature Conservancy of Oklahoma and helped establish the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in Osage County.

How big was the Drummond Ranch?

When his father died in 1958 the family ranches covered about 25,000 acres in Osage County, according to Oklahoma Historical Society material on the family.

When was Fred Drummond inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners?

The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum inducted him into the Hall of Great Westerners in 2006.

Sources and further reading

Profiles are compiled from public sources and reviewed against them. See our editorial policy to suggest a correction.

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