Dan the man

We all know the Thunder; Here’s Oklahoma’s lesser-known MVP

The purpose of this column, beyond the tongue-in-cheek subtitle, is to expose you, dear reader, to the men and women deserving of the praise, respect, and public awareness we usually reserve for country music stars and for when Kevin Durant saves a game with a buzzer-beating shot.

Moreover, I want you to know about the Oklahomans doing great things now. Sure, on occasion, we will take a trip back to shed some light on someone unfairly buried in the rubble of the past. As the mission states, we need to move beyond Woody and Will with our distribution of importance.

For example, did you know that an Oklahoma City native just won the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction? Dan Fagin’s “Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation” is an investigative work on par with “A Civil Action” and “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.” It may be too early to tell, but I doubt the book will reach the same commercial heights as these topical predecessors. I could be wrong. With the Pulitzer and an upcoming paperback release, it could take on a new life.

Born in 1963, Fagin attended Oklahoma City’s Bishop McGuinness Catholic High School and went on to serve as Editor-in-Chief and President of the Dartmouth College newspaper. His childhood friend and schoolmate Blake Bailey (a Pulitzer finalist and National Book Critics Circle Award Winner) headed off to Tulane before becoming America’s preeminent literary biographer.

The two remain close and represent Oklahoma in a way that shines a much-needed light of intellectualism on our home state. It’s easy to get mired in the bad news and moronic policies, the botched executions, the shame in regularly topping the lists no state wants to be on.

For the past few years, the Tulsa City-County Library has hosted a regular series, “Novel Talk.” The slogan for the series is “Smart is Good.” It’s a simple but powerful phrase that’s so true, so misunderstood. We produce oil, but not as much as we used to. We produce world-class athletes, but some era are better than others. We produce smart people, as many now as ever before, perhaps more. The problem is that we don’t lift them up, celebrate them. We hold up these people not to boost their ego or to envy their accomplishments. The rising tide truly lifts all ships.

Toms River is a small town in New Jersey that most people have never heard of. Dan Fagin’s book, chronicling the decades-long battle over toxic dumping in said town, may give it a sort of infamy currently enjoyed by Oklahoma’s own Picher. The book begins with an admission of the unknown: “Who Tom was, if he ever was, is the first unresolved mystery of Toms River.” Hopefully, with a Pulitzer in pocket, and a career still very much in its prime, the same will never be said about Dan Fagin.