Grant County, OK Biographies

Grant County, OK Biographies

BELCHER, Page Henry, a Representative from Oklahoma; born in Jefferson, Grant County, Okla., April 21, 1899, on the claim his father took in the opening of the Cherokee Strip; attended high school at Jefferson and Medford, Okla.; student at Friends University, Wichita, Kans., and the University of Oklahoma at Norman; veteran of the First World War; court clerk of Garfield County, Okla., 1934-1938; studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1936 and commenced the practice of law in Enid, Okla.; municipal judge, Enid, Okla., in 1938; eighth district chairman, ten years; State executive secretary of Republican Party; secretary to Congressman Ross Rizley in 1941; member of Enid Board of Education; elected as a Republican to the Eighty-second and to the ten succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1951-January 3, 1973); was not a candidate for renomination in 1972 to the Ninety-third Congress; was a resident of Midwest City, Okla., where he died August 2, 1980; interment in Memorial Park Cemetery, Enid, Okla. -- Contributed by A. Newell.

Admiral Apollo Soucek was a vice-admiral in the United States Navy, notable a test pilot during the 1920s and as commander of Carrier Division Three during the Korean War. In the 1920s, Soucek became a test pilot in the Navy. He set and held multiple flight records, most notably in 1930, when he set a world record altitude of 43,166 feet while flying a single engined Curtiss Hawk biplane. Soucek was an officer on board the carrier USS Hornet when it launched the Doolittle raid on Tokyo in 1942. In 1945, Soucek became the first commanding officer of the Midway-class aircraft carrier USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVB-42). Soucek rose to the rank of Rear Admiral and command of Carrier Division Three (March 1952 – February 1953), with his flag aboard USS Boxer. Soucek also acted as commander of Task Force 77 during line periods. In 1953, he was named as Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics (BuAer), a post he retained until 1955. Soucek attained the rank of Vice Admiral. He died of a heart attack on 25 July 1955, at the age of 58. In 1957, NAAS Oceana (later NAS Oceana) was named Apollo Soucek Field in his honor. He was the brother of Zeus Soucek and his father was John Soucek of Grant County, Oklahoma