Oklahoma native James Ralph Scales received degrees from Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee and the University of Oklahoma, and served in World War II before returning to his alma mater as Dean of Men and a history and government professor. He later became the school’s vice president and, in 1961, became OBU’s ninth president. He served in the post until 1965 when he moved to Oklahoma State University as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and a professor of political science. While serving at OSU, he established the literary quarterly, Cimarron Review. He then served as president of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, from 1967 to 1983.