Glenna Tanenbaum: community leader, philanthropist and creative powerhouse

EDITOR’S NOTE: Moments before we went to press, Richard and Glenna Tanenbaum announced another game-changing project for Oklahoma City – they have purchased the former BancFirst Building, built in 1921, and the 1924 Medical Arts Building, which will be converted into a mix of 265 apartments and retail, to be called ‘The Harlow.’ According to a recent news article, Richard estimates the development will cost $60 million with construction starting in March 2023 and opening a year later.

Being Glenna Tanenbaum is clearly a lot of fun. Sitting next to her conveys a contagious rush of excitement from her vivacious, exuberant energy. There’s also a teensy dab of the rebel in her, which has an extra allure all its own. One might say the Force is strong in this one. She’s an unabashed giver. Time, talent, resources — if a cause she believes in needs it, she and her husband Dick will get it, find it or fund it themselves. Philanthropy was instilled in her at a young age, and it’s central to her ethos. 

“My grandfather, my mother's father, taught me about Judaism,” she says. “He read the Torah for our junior congregation. So every Saturday he would come and read the Torah for the kids. And I learned to be a kind person, giving, thoughtful … you know, all the things. Love everyone regardless of what they’re like … and, you know, just be a good, kind person and do what you can for people around you.

“Then I went to Casady, and in the sixth grade Father Barnes asked for volunteers to go down to Walnut Grove. It's now under the bridge that you cross over when you go into Bricktown … we would go down after school for a couple of hours and meet with these young kids, just to get them off the street. We taught them everything from making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to simple things that they could cook or bake.”

Father Barnes wanted to keep children safely off the street, and he wanted to introduce the Casady kids to community service. “So there was dual purpose, and I absolutely loved it. And my father used to say to me, always, ‘You have to give back to the community that takes care of you.’ 

From Casady School, Tanenbaum went to Mount Vernon College, and then to the University of Arizona, where she had planned to be an art history major but soon realized that interior design was her thing — so she transferred to the University of Oklahoma, an experience she loved.   

Her husband, Richard (Dick) Tanenbaum, CEO at Gardner Tanenbaum, is perhaps best known for his business acumen, but his sense of humor is likely a close second. As Glenna is chatting about the arts and fashion scene in New York City, from which she has just returned, Dick pops in with a colleague whom he mischievously introduced as his proctologist. He proceeds to introduce the other folks in the room as IRS agents, cracking everyone up.

The family business, Gardner Tanenbaum, is a roaring success. The Tanenbaums’ two children, Becky Tanenbaum Mallace and Stephen Tanenbaum, are principals at the firm and Glenna has applied her interior design to its portfolio of projects for decades. Perhaps her coup de maitre is the interior design at The Presley Apartments, the historic former Lincoln Plaza Hotel reimagined as more than 300 multi-family apartments. Its interior spaces are sophisticated, exciting and a little bit rock ’n’ roll, a difficult balance to strike — unless you’re Glenna Tanenbaum.

Since 1997, Dick has overseen the growth of the company’s commercial portfolio, expanding it from 800,000 square feet to more than 8,000,000 square feet. He has completed nearly 50 projects totaling more than $500,000,000, making Gardner Tanenbaum one of the largest developers in Oklahoma. In 2020, Mr. Tanenbaum negotiated one of the largest commercial real estate transactions in Oklahoma history, selling the Boeing Oklahoma City campus for more than $124.7 million to West Coast investors 

Glenna and Dick light up when they’re in the same room, even for a brief (if hilarious) moment. They clearly delight one another, and like many successful couples, they complement each other.

“We’re opposites in a lot of ways, and we have learned to like what each other likes. Except not football. I'm sorry, I'm not a sports fan. Not any sports, to be honest with you. But I love the arts. All the arts. So Dick has learned to really love the arts,” she says.  

The pair met in Houston, where Glenna had moved after college, and where Dick’s family had moved from Cuba. Their clans were part of a close-knit group of three families. “So the three families had every Jewish holiday together — Passover, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur — and they were always big feasts,” she says. Glenna was part of the young singles contingent, and had met Dick’s brother, but didn’t meet Dick until later. “His brother invited him to a party of a best friend of mine who was leaving Houston. And that's how we met. He called me the next day and we went out.” And that was that.

He was exotic to her. “I had never met anyone like him! A Cuban! He was fascinating. And he never shut up,” she says, laughing. She credits him with helping her find her voice. “After we were dating a few weeks, he said to me, ‘You know, you hardly ever talk.’” Glenna told him she couldn’t get a word in edgewise, but soon enough she learned to jump in and speak her mind. She’d never been a wallflower, but she’d also never encountered such a force of nature as her future husband.

Her volunteer (and the couple’s philanthropic) career has scaled right along with their business. When they moved back to Oklahoma City 25 years ago, she began volunteering in smaller roles, starting with the Orchestra League. “I got involved with Show House. And that's how it all got started … I would do our fair share, and we would give our fair share of money. And then Dick, obviously, just kept doing better and better. And we became able to do more and more.”

These days, their gifts are life-changing for the organizations they support, as is the leadership and expertise Tanenbaum brings to the table. She moved into board positions after becoming president of the Orchestra League in 2005. “And that was the beginning of my board works here in Oklahoma City. Other boards started asking me to volunteer because I love governance. People don't like governance, but I love governance. I love reading bylaws.”

She also loves figuring things out, which has made her invaluable to the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Oklahoma Contemporary, Oklahoma City Public Schools Foundation, Oklahoma City Jewish Federation, Kramer School of Nursing, IMPACT Oklahoma, Oklahoma Women’s Coalition, Kirkpatrick Foundation and many more. For her dedication and the couple’s largesse, Glenna Tanenbaum has received scads of high honors.

What else? She’s a well-grounded person who doesn’t get too rattled. For her, a good Pilates class will fix just about anything. She’s the first to tell you that she’s the very same person she’s always been — the vast successes of Gardner Tanenbaum haven’t changed her. She’s still a committed champion for the arts and education. She claims to be retired, but a moment or two later mentions that she’s building luxury homes and getting immersed in the philanthropic scene in Cabo San Lucas, where she and Dick now live half-time or more.  

In short, she’s the exact sort of person we need more of in OKC.