The Midwest Associate

Who was Perry Duke Maxwell? What was he like? Why write about him? There are many answers to these questions. Maxwell was a loving father and husband. He was kind and generous and spiritual. He pursued life and wisdom as if they were lost treasures. He was a fixture to his community as well. The Ardmore Presbyterian Church in Ardmore, Oklahoma has been a city landmark since it was constructed in 1916. The original building was constructed with the help of many and was spearheaded by Perry Duke Maxwell and is a monument to his faith and devotion to his community and to God. Maxwell was well known at the time of the construction of the church in his own community for service to the town and for his role as a cashier and officer at the Ardmore National Bank. He also had constructed and designed a four-hole golf course just north of town off what is now US 77. But to many outside Ardmore, Perry Maxwell was a name that may have only been known by a select few who happened to be in the oil business. It was a strange sequence of events that led to him developing into one of the select group of people associated with what has been termed the "Golden Age of Golf Design."

Chris Clouser is part-time writer that has taken a special interest in Perry Maxwell and his career and has provided the fruits of his research in the form of his first book, The Midwest Associate. Clouser has published other articles over the last few years in his study of golf course architecture history in his spare time away from his family, his understanding wife and his two beautiful children, and his work as an analyst for a property management company.