Theodore Haynes

Background

About Theodore Haynes

As a young boy growing up in semi-rural Oklahoma, I set my sights high and my dreams even higher. Being the sixth child in a family of twelve kids, you had to aim for something remarkable to stand out in the crowd. My father worked hard as a janitor and at times would take all the kids with him to help. We each had a specific assignment, and my special job was to empty the trash. One evening while the family was cleaning the office of a local attorney, I climbed in his leather chair behind his crate desk and imagined what it must be like to be a lawyer. At the time there were only two African American attorneys in the entire state of Oklahoma. Right then and there, I committed myself to becoming, at the very least, the third. Hard work paved the road to Langston University, where I studied History and was inducted into the LU Athletic Hall of Fame as a two-sport varsity athlete in football and basketball. After graduating, and shortly after leaving the Air Force, I enrolled at the Oklahoma City University School of Law. Upon graduation I partnered with a fellow classmate and started a firm right in town. I practiced until becoming appointed as a Federal Administrative Law Judge in 1982, where I served until retiring in 2006. Life’s been good. Since retiring, I’ve remained active as an arbitrator and mediator, working for organizations both domestically and globally. I’m also a Supreme Court Certified Mediator and Arbitrator in Florida. Most recently, I have the honor to serve as President for Mediators Without Borders, an alternative dispute resolution company with a unique conflict analysis model that’s going to shake up the industry. So much for kicking back as a retiree. In 2010, after much nudging from my wife and grandchildren, I compiled tales of my childhood and wrote Growing Up Stories, a humorous book on growing up black and poor in Oklahoma in the 1930’s and 40’s. Today I live with my lovely wife and our 10 year old grandson in sunny Florida.