September 13, 2024

Yoakums to be inducted into Boulder County Business Hall of Fame

LONGMONT — Longtime Longmont business leaders Carol and Harvey Yoakum are among nine individuals to be inducted into the Boulder County Business Hall of Fame.

The hall’s Class of 2024 will be honored Wednesday at the Jewish Community Center, 6007 Oleg Ave. in Boulder. Other inductees include Philip DiStefano, Ann Cooper, Dr. Tom Cech, Andrew Quillen, Daniel Vonalt, Kurt Quillen and Clair Beckmann.

The award will be presented to Harvey Yoakum posthumously. He died in March 2023 at age 80.

Carol Yoakum continues the couple’s legacy of mentoring others to community service. She was one of the developers of Meadow Green Farm, a thoroughbred training center.

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The Yoakums developed Raspberry Hill Business Park, where Stevinson Lexus, Stapp Toyota and other businesses are located.

They were active in philanthropic endeavors in many states. Carol Yoakum was among the signers when the Longmont United Hospital Foundation was formed.

They also founded programs at the Ellsworth Correctional Facility in Kansas and carpeted the Spiritual Life Center there. In Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, the couple started a 32-bed drug and alcohol treatment facility which was later sold to the Chickasaw Nation and is now an adolescent treatment facility.

An Oklahoma native, Harvey Yoakum’s early work was in the beef industry, but three years after arriving in Longmont in 1972, he purchased Korte Tire from the retiring Fred Korte and opened Yoakum Tire & Oil Co. on Main Street.

He became the first president of the Twin Peaks Rotary Club, coached Little League baseball, and organized a group to build a baseball diamond behind Clover Basin Reservoir. 

Harvey Yoakum and Carol Oswald Yoakum, his wife of 36 years, worked together to develop several commercial and residential projects in Oklahoma.

Tickets for the induction ceremony are available at www.halloffamebiz.com.

Dallas Heltzell
With BizWest since 2012 and in Colorado since 1979, Dallas worked at the Longmont Times-Call, Colorado Springs Gazette, Denver Post and Public News Service. A Missouri native and Mizzou School of Journalism grad, Dallas started as a sports writer and outdoor columnist at the St. Charles (Mo.) Banner-News, then went to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch before fleeing the heat and humidity for the Rockies. He especially loves covering our mountain communities.
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