Georgina M. Holt became the first business teacher at the college in 1898, teaching typing and shorthand to eight students. It was probably an especially tough job at first, since there was only one typewriter for some time.

Among Holt’s first students were Allie Lewis, who was later became a Tulsa millionaire and Roy Thompson, who later served as a stenographer for one of Oklahoma’s first U.S. Senators, Thomas Gore.

After five years on the job, Holt decided to marry popular professor L. L. Lewis and resigned as a matter of university policy. Employment for women was not considered compatible with the time-consuming task of raising a family, so only single women were allowed to hold jobs on campus at the time. Sometime after Lewis’s death in 1922, Holt reportedly returned to work for the university. The prevailing employment policy didn’t change in the U.S. until the 1940s.

Despite the early obstacles, Holt’s initial efforts launched what would one day become the award-winning Spears School of Business.