Professor, College of Business

Pool, ping-pong, card games - Dr. Gillen loves to play games of all kinds. In fact, he and his fellow professors in the College of Business enjoy games so much they've organized a regular game night with students. When he was younger, he was also an avid tennis player. He and Dr. Ralph Fagin won the faculty doubles tennis tournament for many years, but once he reached 70 rheumatism forced him to hang up his racquet.

Dr. Gillen is also active as an elder, soloist and organist at Grace Lutheran Church. In addition to filling in whenever the main organist is out of town, he plays the pipe organ during communion each week.

The great love of Dr. Gillen's life is the College of Business at ORU. In 1965 he was the founding chairman of the department and served in that role for 41 wonderful years. During his nearly 45 years of service at the university he has been voted "Faculty Member of the Year" more than any other professor. He has also served regularly in the faculty senate, holding many offices including the presidency.

During his years at ORU, Dr. Gillen has escorted students on trips to Europe, Tobago, Hawaii, Trinidad, Mexico and Belize. On these excursions, students gain an appreciation for cultural business differences and learn to reach out to people across barriers to build relationships. Dr. Gillen also has worked with students in the government's SBA competition that requires them to delve deeply into a company to find out, among other things, who the customers are, what their competitive position is, and how to solve some of their problems. On 15-20 occasions, ORU's teams have won the state award.

Dr. Gillen commented, "Every day is new and exciting working with our students. Seeing them change from immature green freshman into mature adults ready to make a difference in the world is enormously satisfying. I've put everything into my students, and I'm rewarded by maintaining relationships with them long after they leave campus." 

Associate Degree in Sociology from Tulsa Community College
B.S. in Management and Economics from the University of Tulsa
M.B.A. from University of Tulsa
Ed.D. in Economics and Management from University of Tulsa
Certificate of Economics from Cambridge University

Contact information:  ggillen@oru.edu   918.495.6556

 Vita