Native Texans, A. T. F. "Tom" and Gladys Seale moved to Oklahoma City when Tom accepted an engineering job with a small independent oil company named Kerr-McGee. He would eventually serve on the company's board of directors.
Known as a hard worker and shrewd engineer, Tom played a key role in designing and building the world's first off-shore drilling platform outside the sight of land in 1947 off the Louisiana coast. Tom believed in working 24 hours a day, and this work philosophy would influence the oil industry's workweek for many years.
Married 56 years, Tom and Gladys built a life together in Oklahoma City that included socializing with their many friends, attending social events and traveling. Prior to their marriage, Gladys worked as a schoolteacher and always held education and youth-serving organizations in especially high regard.
In 1986, the couple established the A.T.F. "Tom" and Gladys Seale Fund at the Oklahoma City Community Foundation, which was further funded after their deaths through a gift from their estate. The fund supports a number of charitable organizations and causes that were important to the couple, like the Boys and Girls Clubs of Oklahoma County and the St. Anthony Hospital Foundation.