In 1935, the trustees of Tulsa University, then struggling with financial problems caused by the Great Depression, recruited Pontius to serve as president of the school.
For fourteen years, he was the executive officer of the Trumbull National Farm Loan Association, which was connected with the regional Federal Land Bank in Louisville, Kentucky.
In 1920, while remaining with Trumbull, he organized Valley City Mortgage and Loan Company, and served as treasurer, manager and president until 1930.
[b][1] During the Texas oil boom,[c] Pontius moved to the then-Oil Capital of the World, Tulsa, in 1930, where he became a successful investment banker.
[2] He is credited with saving the school from bankruptcy and putting it on a sound financial basis, and was the longest-serving president in TU's history.