David Brumbaugh, RIP

Oklahoma State Representative David Brumbaugh died Saturday night, April 15, 2017, of a heart attack. Brumbaugh, a Republican who had represented House District 76 in Broken Arrow since his first election in 2010 and chaired the House Republican Caucus, was 56 years old. He is survived by his wife and their two daughters. His funeral will be held Saturday, April 22, 2017, at 1 p.m. at Tulsa Bible Church, where Brumbaugh served as a deacon and Sunday School teacher. His body will lie in repose in the State Capitol on Thursday, April 20, 2017, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Brumbaugh was a consistent, principled conservative who was respected by his ideological adversaries for his gracious demeanor. I regarded him as a legislator who could be counted on to understand the issues, know which bills were and were not consistent with conservative principles, and then act in accordance with conservative principles. It was a pleasure to get to know him and speak with him about various issues.

Among many other bills signed into law, Brumbaugh was the author of a bill, approved in 2015, to protect the conscience rights of clergy with regard to solemnizing or recognizing a marriage. The same year, he authored a bill to tighten the definition of blight and to require an additional public hearing prior to adoption of an urban renewal plan.

Brumbaugh was a champion of county budget reform. In 2013, he advanced a bill, HB 1230, that would have required earmarked funds and carryover funds to be accounted for in the budget process. Because of pushback from county officials who apparently like the lack of oversight, the bill stalled after passing out of the Government Modernization committee. Shame on GOP legislative leaders for blocking such a simple and straightforward measure for financial accountability. In 2012, he successfully shepherded a bill requiring training for County Excise Board members, so that they would know their powers and responsibilities in considering millage requests from taxing entities.

His 2015 bill to protect electric utility customers from the involuntary imposition of "smart meters" passed unanimously in the Utilities Committee but never got a hearing before the whole house.

Those of you who, like me, despised the illegibly tiny letters on the signs for unnumbered Oklahoma turnpikes owe David Brumbaugh a debt of gratitude for advocating for their designation as state highways (e.g. Creek Turnpike as 364), with nice, big, legible numbers.

In the current legislature, Brumbaugh had introduced legislation further tightening the overbroad definition of "blight," requiring the State Auditor to post raw data sets from county audits to data.ok.gov, and requiring the Oklahoma Tax Commission to provide and the State Equalization Board to use actual revenues from the last five years in estimating revenue for the budget process.

May God bless Oklahoma with more trustworthy, principled, sensible legislators like David Brumbaugh. May God comfort his family as they mourn his homegoing.

MORE: The power-generation industry honors their fallen colleague:

If you never met David Brumbaugh at your plant or office, or at a user-group vendor fair--often with wife Shelley and occasionally daughters Abigail and Hannah--that's unfortunate. The late president of DRB Industries LLC was particularly knowledgeable on gas-turbine inlet and exhaust systems, air filters, and cooling towers, and always willing to share best practices and lessons learned. He was positive-minded and had an engaging personality; many in the electric-power industry benefited from his caring/sharing nature.

David died last Saturday evening (April 16) of a heart attack--so unexpected it left even close personal friends in shock. Rick Shackelford, division director, powerplant operations, for NAES Corp, knew Brumbaugh well, both personally and professionally. He told CCJ, "Such a terrible loss for Oklahoma. . .the power industry. . .his family. . .and his friends. David was a true-life world-changer."

Industry people generally are aware that David founded DRB Industries to support powerplant owner/operators in the selection, installation (including design and construction services to the degree necessary), inspection, and maintenance of filtration and cooling products. But that was only the tip of the iceberg for this perpetual-motion machine of a man.