Eugene Holman

Holman grew up in the tiny railroad town of Monahans, where his parents operated the Holman Hotel (now restored and part of the Million Barrel Museum complex). He finished the ten grades then offered in the Monahans schools in 1911, entered Simmons College (now Hardin-Simmons University) in 1912, and received an A.B. degree in 1916. At the University of Texas he received his M.A. degree in geology in 1917. His knowledge of elementary conversational Spanish helped him to get a job assisting two professors who made a geological survey of Cuba in 1917. His service in the aerial-photography division of the United States Army Signal Corps in World War I included Great Britain. He soon got a job as a geologist with Humble Oil and Refining Company (now Exxon Company, U.S.A.) through Wallace E. Pratt. He worked in the boom in Ranger, Texas, and was sent to Shreveport, Louisiana, as geologist for the North Louisiana-Arkansas area. There he met and in 1923 married Edith Carver Reid, a native of Alabama. They had two children. Holman was promoted to district superintendent in Shreveport, and in 1926 he moved to Houston as chief geologist for Humble. His oil-finding ability soon attracted the attention of officials in the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, the major stockholder of Humble. He moved to New York City in 1929 and was sent to Venezuela to evaluate Jersey Standard's unsuccessful operations in that country. Elected a director of Jersey Standard in 1940, a vice president in 1942, and president in 1944. He served on the Petroleum Administration for the War Council during World War II. In December 1945 he was named chairman of the executive committee of Jersey Standard while continuing as chief executive officer, a position he held until his retirement in 1960. In 1954 he was also elected chairman of the board of Jersey Standard. He voted as a Democrat until about 1940, when he supported Wendell Willkie for president. He became a friend and confidant of Dwight D. Eisenhower. After his retirement, he owned a ranch in Arkansas in partnership with his son, Eugene, Jr