Joe Russell Kreger was born in 1939 to Dr. Glen S. and Gladys Kreger. His brothers are Dr. Ron Kreger and the late Ken Kreger. He grew up in Tonkawa and attended both Pratt Center School and Tonkawa Public Schools.After graduating from Tonkawa High School in 1957, Joe received his Associate of Science degree from Northern Oklahoma College in 1959 and his Bachelor of Science degree from Oklahoma State University in 1961.As a young man, Joe worked cowboy jobs on ranches in Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado and Arkansas. He joined the Army Reserves and fulfilled his active-duty requirement following graduation from OSU.From 1965 to 1968, while cattle ranching, he taught agriculture classes at NOC, pursued a master’s degree at OSU and started a family. His children, Dessa, Sara and Joe B. were born in 1964, 1968 and 1972, respectively.Following his tenure at NOC, Joe worked in administrative support positions in the purchasing and geophysics departments of Continental Oil Company (Conoco). He left that position in the early 70’s to establish Kreger Equipment, a state-wide wholesale livestock equipment business which he operated until 2001.Tragically, Joe’s daughters were killed in a car accident in 1985, along with their friend Loralynn Sheets. He credits his faith in Christ as the source of the strength which enables him to encourage others who have faced similar loss.In 1993, his ranch sustained heavy flooding. The silver lining was it opened the floodgates on his creative calling. At the age of 56, he began writing poetry of life experiences. Often referred to as “Cowboy Poetry,” his works were passed around, and requests for performances started to come in from farm and ranch organizations, schools, and churches. This developed into a heavy speaking schedule that required travel from Texas to Nebraska and Iowa. For a number of years, Joe authored a poetry column in the “High Plains Journal.” His work has also been displayed in numerous other periodicals.For several years, Joe was associated with Agri-Talk, a national radio broadcasting company, and did several radio shows and personal appearances in Branson, Missouri theaters. His works were also displayed in video clips which ran on RFD TV. Through Agri-Talk, two books of Kreger’s poetry were published, along with three audio CD albums.In 1998, Joe was appointed “Poet Laureate of Oklahoma” by Governor Frank Keating. He continued to perform poetry presentations for a number of years. But with the constraints of ranching ...
