In 1995, OCU Law was not yet at its 8th & Harvey home. But, like every Oklahoma City institution, the school and its family were among those lost, those who survived, and those changed forever by the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.
April 19, 2025, marked 30 years since the attack. During the landmark remembrance ceremony at the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum, OCU Law Dean and OKC Mayor David Holt, speaking alongside President Bill Clinton and former Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating, observed the way the city has changed in those three decades. Survivors and family read the names of the 168 people killed in the bombing. Among the names were two OCU Law alumni: Jules Valdez and Michael Weaver.
At 9:02 a.m. on April 19, 1995, a truck bomb ripped through the Murrah building and shattered the peace and security that the city took for granted. 168 people, including 19 children, were killed. It remains the deadliest act of homegrown terrorism in American history. Timothy McVeigh was later convicted and executed by the United States for the bombing.
A few blocks away, the building at 8th & Harvey was rocked by the blast. Windows were shattered, and the impact of the bombing was felt by those working inside. The building was home to Southwestern Bell Telephone’s (SWBT) Oklahoma headquarters at the time, with hundreds of employees working in cubicles scattered across several floors. One employee grabbed a first aid kit and ran outside to provide assistance to injured people on the street. Another who was walking from a worksite a couple of streets over ran to the federal building to try to help.
Donna Weaver worked for SWBT on the third floor of the north side of their office building. On the day of the bombing, she felt the building shake and heard the raining glass of the shattered skylights falling over the cubicles. On a normal day, Donna would often walk down to the YMCA across the street from the Federal Building and wave to her husband Michael as she passed his office there. On the day of the bombing, she left her office and ran toward the Federal Building to find that the part of the building where Michael’s office had been was gone.
Immediately after the blast, SWBT made its building and parking lots available to the U.S. Marshal’s office, the National Guard, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Oklahoma City police and fire departments, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, and many other first responder agencies. The first night, more than 200 firefighters from California and Arizona slept in the office cubicles. The 8th & Harvey building became a nerve center for federal investigators, forensic experts, emergency coordinators, and search and rescue experts, and it served as a place to rest for exhausted first responders.
In a SWBT newsletter published in May of 1995, SWBT Oklahoma President Dave Lopez said, “We knew right after the blast that our buildings, just because of their location in downtown Oklahoma City, would be of key importance to authorities. We told them we would provide them with whatever they needed, from a place to work, to phone service, to places for search crews to sleep and shower…For our company it’s been a rough week. But what kind of week we’ve had doesn’t matter. What matters is that a lot of sons and daughters and husbands and wives and mothers and fathers are hurting, and we need to be of help any way we can.”
The day after the bombing, the SBC Foundation – the philanthropic arm of SWBT parent company SBC Communications – contributed $1 million to area relief organizations. SWBT crews worked around the clock for days to restore and add phone lines.
Though Donna Weaver didn’t learn about all her company had done to support the relief efforts until much later, she was proud of SWBT’s response and the company’s support for both her and the community.
“It meant a lot,” Donna said. “They were just amazingly kind to me.”
In 2025, OCU Law Associate Dean of Library and Technology Lee Peoples led an effort to refresh the museum room at the law school, and in that process added a display case honoring the two OCU Law alumni who were killed and recognizing the response from SWBT and the role the 8th & Harvey building played in the aftermath of the bombing.
Michael Weaver (‘74)
Michael Weaver was born on Jan. 6, 1950, in Blackwell, Oklahoma. He was killed in the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995.
Michael attended college at the University of Oklahoma, where he met his wife of 21 years Donna. He graduated in 1972 with a B.B.A. in finance and immediately went on to attend law school at Oklahoma City University School of Law. He finished law school in just two years, graduating in 1974.
“He liked the idea of finishing in two years,” Donna said. “It was pretty grueling though.”
While Michael went to law school, Donna worked toward a graduate degree at OU. Donna looks back on that time as
difficult and demanding, but she says they were still able to occasionally get away from their studies to do some of their favorite things like going skiing and attending the OU/Texas football game.
“Michael worked hard at law school,” Donna said. “It wasn’t easy, but he was glad to do it.”
After graduating from OCU Law, Michael went on to work for a small oil company in Oklahoma City for a few months before joining the General Services Administration office in Fort Worth, Texas. In 1990, Donna’s job at Southwestern Bell Telephone brought the Weavers back to Oklahoma, and Michael started his job at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Michael was well-suited for government work and enjoyed doing research and finding answers for people. Donna says Michael was very smart but “a little on the shyer side.” He wasn’t a big fan of arguing in a courtroom, but he loved helping people and giving advice.
Outside of work, Michael loved coaching his two sons, Jeff and Tim, in baseball, basketball and soccer. He was very supportive of youth sports, and he often showed up to coach still in his suit and tie from work.
“He would take off his coat, take off his tie, and he would coach in his suit pants and shirt,” Donna recalled. “Because they were important to him.”
On the morning of the bombing, Michael was at the desk of a coworker who also coached his sons’ baseball team, chatting about the approaching start of the season. Donna was in her office two blocks north of the Federal Building in the building that is now home to OCU Law.
Michael is deeply missed by his wife, sons, and many others who knew and loved him, as well as his five grandchildren who never got to meet him. From his 1995 obituary: “The Weavers are a loving, joyous family, and Mike’s laughter, dry sense of humor and role of the ‘straight man’ will always be remembered. And as we know, Mike loved many, as he sang often and poorly, ‘I’ve got friends in low places…and I’ll be okay.’”
Thank you to Donna Weaver McGinty for sharing her and Michael’s story with OCU Law.
Jules A. Valdez (‘86)
Jules A. Valdez was born on December 27, 1943, in San Antonio, Texas. He was killed in the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995.
Jules grew up in Texas, part of a family of eight. He served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps as a sharpshooter from 1962-1965 before studying at the University of Texas in Austin. In 1970, he became the first person in his family to graduate college when he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in psychology. That same year, Jules married Virginia and moved to Illinois to work for the Department of Defense.
A few years later, Jules and Virginia moved to Oklahoma. Jules went to work for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as a program manager in the Indian
“He was always learning new things and enjoyed going to law school at night after his day job at HUD,” Virginia recalled. “He had a special bond with his fellow students.”
After moving to Oklahoma, Jules and Virginia welcomed their daughter, Marisa.
“She has always been his pride and joy,” Virginia said.
Jules volunteered much of his spare time for the many organizations he was a part of, particularly the Edmond Central Rotary Club, where he served as a director, secretary and treasurer. Other organizations included Big Brothers, Legal Aid, Edmond Chamber of Commerce, Edmond Certified Cities Taskforce, and Leadership Edmond. He also served as an adjunct professor at UCO and ran for Edmond City Council in 1991. He was a member of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Edmond. Jules spent a great deal of his time performing pro bono legal services. In 1996, the Oklahoma County Bar Legal Aid Committee and Legal Aid of Western Oklahoma posthumously named Jules the “Pro Bono Lawyer of the Month.”
Jules loved photography and reading, he played on a soccer team and golfed, and he enjoyed lawn and garden work, among many other hobbies. Virginia says that cooking and baking joined his list of hobbies when she started attending graduate school at night.
Through his work, Jules spent much of his professional life devoted to the improvement of life for Native Americans. For his efforts, the Ponca Tribe named its social service building in White Eagle, Oklahoma, the Jules Valdez Social Service Center. The Comanche Nation dedicated the “Yuhuh-Muku Kahni” Building, its multi-purpose building in Lawton, Oklahoma, to Jules’s memory in recognition of his influence and valuable contributions.
In June of 1995, Jules and Virginia would have celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary. He is very missed by many, especially his wife and daughter.
Virginia shared the following poem, written for Jules after his death, by Steve Pensoneau:
You have come to the end of your travail here,
Your long tribal service has been true.
We shall miss you and your helpful ways.
May Wacondah smile as He welcomes you.
The time has come now to say so long,
Anchors away – all’s well.
We shall see you on the other shore.
It’s not good-bye, just BON VOYAGE, Farewell.
Thank you to Virginia Valdez for sharing her and Jules’s story with OCU Law.