Published: July 21, 2008 01:27 pm            

Update:Drowning victim identified as OU doctoral student

By Tom Blakey

Transcript Staff Writer

Police Tuesday identified Mahmut Gokmen, 27, as the man found dead in the bottom of a swimming pool at an east Norman apartment complex.

Gokmen was a resident of the Summer Pointe Apartments, 1149 E. Brooks St., where a maintenance worker discovered his body shortly before 8 a.m. Monday, police said. He was a geography doctoral student at the University of Oklahoma.

“Mahmut Gokmen will be missed greatly by the OU family, especially his peers and colleagues in the department of geography,” OU President David Boren said. “He will be remembered for his contributions to the academic community at OU and the broader geography community. Our sympathy is with his family and friends.”

Gokmen was born in Havza, Turkey, on July 2, 1981. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of Istanbul in 2002. He completed his master's degree at the University of Akron in 2007 under the supervision of Dr. Ghazi-Walid Falah, and was working on his Ph.D. in Geography at OU under the supervision of Dr. Darren Purcell.

He was the author (with Tyler Haas) of “Modern Mapping of Orientalism on the Arab World: National Geographic Magazine, 1990-2006” in The Arab World Geographer (volume 10, 2007). He received the Charles Standley Memorial Award for outstanding graduate student publication from the OU Department of Geography in April. He enjoyed tennis, soccer, and traveling.

Mahmut is survived by his wife Nalan, his parents, his parents-in-law, and many other relatives and friends in Turkey and the United States.

Responding officers and emergency personnel found Gokmen face down in the bottom of the pool. He was wearing swimming trunks, and police said there was no indication of foul play.

“There’s nothing to indicate it was anything but accidental,” said Norman Police Capt. Leonard Judy. “There were no outward signs of trauma.”

The medical examiner’s office will assist in determining the cause, manner and time of death, officials said.

Tom Blakey366-3540tblakey@normantranscript.com









































Police Tuesday identified Mahmut Gokmen, 27, as the man found dead in the bottom of a swimming pool at an east Norman apartment complex.

Gokmen was a resident of the Summer Pointe Apartments, 1149 E. Brooks St., where a maintenance worker discovered his body shortly before 8 a.m. Monday, police said. He was a geography doctoral student at the University of Oklahoma.

“Mahmut Gokmen will be missed greatly by the OU family, especially his peers and colleagues in the department of geography,” OU President David Boren said. “He will be remembered for his contributions to the academic community at OU and the broader geography community. Our sympathy is with his family and friends.”

Gokmen was born in Havza, Turkey, on July 2, 1981. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of Istanbul in 2002. He completed his master's degree at the University of Akron in 2007 under the supervision of Dr. Ghazi-Walid Falah, and was working on his Ph.D. in Geography at OU under the supervision of Dr. Darren Purcell.

He was the author (with Tyler Haas) of “Modern Mapping of Orientalism on the Arab World: National Geographic Magazine, 1990-2006” in The Arab World Geographer (volume 10, 2007). He received the Charles Standley Memorial Award for outstanding graduate student publication from the OU Department of Geography in April. He enjoyed tennis, soccer, and traveling.

Mahmut is survived by his wife Nalan, his parents, his parents-in-law, and many other relatives and friends in Turkey and the United States.

Responding officers and emergency personnel found Gokmen face down in the bottom of the pool. He was wearing swimming trunks, and police said there was no indication of foul play.

“There’s nothing to indicate it was anything but accidental,” said Norman Police Capt. Leonard Judy. “There were no outward signs of trauma.”

The medical examiner’s office will assist in determining the cause, manner and time of death, officials said.

Tom Blakey366-3540tblakey@normantranscript.com

        

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