In the late 1940s when OMRF was little more than a dream, Oklahomans from every corner of the state pitched in to bring it to reality. From wheat campaigns to change drives, rural donors sent gifts to Oklahoma City to help build “their” research foundation.
For Dimple Mobbs, then running a café in Pauls Valley, supporting OMRF made perfect sense.
“I gave to OMRF from the beginning, because I knew it would help the most people in the end,” Mobbs said. “In truth, it helps people everywhere.”
Today, more than six decades later, Mobbs, is still giving to OMRF.
In her 96 years, she has outlived most of her friends and family, and she’s always the oldest attendee at the Pauls Valley High School reunion. But Mobbs has had her share of health issues. She had heart surgery when she was 79 and received three bypasses. Both her grandmothers died of heart problems, as did her father, brother and sister.
Watching them and some close friends suffer with disease showed her the value of good health. The best way to help prevent disease in the future, she decided, was to invest in research at OMRF.
“OMRF scientists work hard to come up with new medicines, and I can appreciate that,” Mobbs said. “I’m always reading about what their researchers are doing. You just can’t find a better place anywhere.”
All her life, Dimple has stayed active and never shied away from work. She “bossed people around” for years at her café. When she inherited a 1,000-acre ranch near Coalgate in 1965, she retired her apron and set to work again. Ranch chores went on every day in all kinds of weather. It was a hard existence, but Dimple adored her life in the country.
She stayed on the ranch until relatives convinced her to move to town two years ago. She settled in Coalgate in what she calls the “perfect spot” just steps away from the local library, beauty salon and drug store. The spry nonagenarian even passed her drivers’ test last year. Although she seldom gets behind the wheel these days, she did it for the principle of the thing, she said.
“Dimple Mobbs embodies what OMRF has stood for since the beginning: a long and healthy life,” said OMRF Vice President of Development Penny Voss. “She’s worked hard all her years, and she’s made giving to OMRF a high priority. She wants to make life better for others both now and in the future.”
