Gary Moores is the embodiment of Eufaula’s character.

Since its founding, the community has been driven by people of vision and ambition; a willingness to work hard and who have optimism for Eufaula’s future.

Moores has never shunned hard work or a good business opportunity.

The 80-year-old businessman continues to have the work ethic that has made him a success in a variety of ventures.

Undeterred by a few failures along the way, Moores pushes forward with an eye to the future.

“If I can’t do what I want to do, I don’t want to live. That’s my philosophy,” he said.

And he has done a lot. Oil and gas. Real estate. Laundromats.

His many successes have allowed him to give back to the community, since 1995 contributing in excess of $250,000 for scholarships through the Dobbs Foundation, named after his mother and his sister-in-law Margaret Dobbs, who recently passed away.

“The Foundation is self-funded, mainly. But there have been several foundations. We use it to work with the schools on different things,” he said.

A 1961 graduate of EHS, Moores has an ambitious idea he is pondering that will benefit the schools and the community.

“The school is talking about building a gym,” said Moores, who is a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation.

But that isn’t farsighted enough. Moores envisions the school, the city and the Creeks coming together to build a community center that would hold 3,500 to 4,000 people.

“I would donate some money to that,” he said.

Such a center would benefit students and all other residents, including retirees.

It would be a health center where people could practice Yoga and other exercises. It would have a swimming pool and basketball courts which could attract tournaments during the playoffs.

“There would be nothing like it between McAlester and Muskogee,” he said. “It would really help Eufaula.”

Another Moores’ vision is senior living accommodations.

“One of our biggest needs in Eufaula is a place for senior living,” he said. “There’s a big need, and we’re looking into that. I haven’t made up my mind whether to rent them or sell them.”

After Moores graduated from high school he was offered a football scholarship to Connors State. Instead, he married at the age of 17 and enrolled at Northeastern, majoring in business administration and minoring in accounting and economics.

During his college years he worked construction at the dam site that would create Lake Eufaula.

“I was a powder monkey, labor, whatever. I was making as much as $1,100 a month, which was huge back then – of course I had to work 91 hours a week to make that.”

After college he had one job interview, with Shell Oil.

“They offered $400 a month,” he said. “I thought, hum. I don’t think I’m going to do this.”

He and his mother and stepfather Jimmy went into the commercial laundry business in Eufaula.

“We were as broke as can be. We were sitting on the floor of the laundry one day counting out 36 cents to buy a pack of cigarettes,” he said.

Their luck changed when a water softener salesman from McAlester walked in and offered them a deal they couldn’t refuse. If they would buy water softener from him, he would get them a loan for $50,000.

The deal was made and in the middle ‘60s the laundry expanded, eventually doing the laundry for Fountainhead and Arrowhead lodges.

In 1967 the laundry business wasn’t doing well enough to support them all so Moores went to work for a company that supplied temporary employment for oil field workers.

Eventually he worked in Michigan, Upstate New York, West Virginia and Ohio, overseeing pipeline construction.

After four years, he decided he would go to law school.

He went to TU at night and during the day worked for a company re-appraising the property values in Tulsa.

At about that time a small group started a pipeline company called Explorer Pipeline.

“Six majors and one independent,” Moores said.

A person he had worked with in the past called and offered him a job.

“I was starving and had two kids and going to law school,” he recalled.

After six weeks of law school he took the job offer.

“I was the first hired as a contract agent and the last to let go,” Moores said.

He worked on a pipeline that went from Chicago to Lake Charles, La.

In 1972 he returned to Eufaula, buying a vending company and going back into business with Jimmy at the laundry.

He diversified in 1978, buying his first oil well in Payne County.

In 1983 he sold the vending company and went fully into the oil and gas business.

Over the years he has withstood three busts in the industry.

“My wife and I just put in a development on Gaines Creek. Finished it in October or November 23. There are 29 lots. We’ve sold one. We’re thinking about putting a spec house out there.”

Watching the town’s growth in recent years, he is optimistic about its future.

“Eufaula is on the right track,” he said.