Bob McCormack

Voices of Oklahoma

Bob McCormack was one of Tulsa, Oklahoma’s premier photographers. A native of Pompey, New York (just a few miles east of Syracuse), Bob’s family moved to Lathrop, Missouri, while Bob was still a child.
Bob came to Tulsa during the great depression. He spent his first night in Tracy Park. The next morning he went to the Tulsa World, where Eugene Lorton hired him immediately and sent him to Claremore because Will Rogers’ plane had crashed, killing Rogers and Wiley Post.
Celebrities, it so happened, were always McCormack’s favorite subjects. When movie theaters were still showplaces, a number of movie stars came through Tulsa for premieres and promotional tours. McCormack met them at the train station and backstage.
He took a job at Douglas Aircraft as its chief photographer. Four years later, he opened a studio of his own. His work has appeared in national publications such as “Life,” “Collier’s,” “Sports Afield,” “National Geographic,” and many others.
He covered the opening of Philbrook Museum in 1939 for the Associated Press.
Bob McCormack died April 4, 2003. Bob’s son John became a very accomplished photographer and tells the story of his father on the oral history website VoicesOfOklahoma.com.