J. Paul Getty (1892–1976) oil magnate

Jean Paul Getty was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on December 15, 1892, the son of an insurance lawyer. In 1903, his father relocated the family to Oklahoma to engage in the nascent oil industry. The endeavor proved successful, and young Getty gradually acquired an intimate knowledge of wildcat oil practices. After working on his father’s rigs for several years, he briefly attended college in California and Oxford, England, but failed to graduate. Instead, Getty came home to concentrate his energies on starting a business of his own. In 1916, he acquired his first lease in Oklahoma, struck oil, and gradually acquired a small fortune. However, Getty’s profligate lifestyle gradually alienated him from his father; after his father’s death in 1930 he was also on increasingly strained terms with his mother. The source of trouble was Getty’s single-minded determination to become rich: He exhibited real flair and intelligence as a businessman but proved utterly ruthless in the pursuit of lucre. He was also apparently incapable of sustaining longterm relationships. Over the course of his long life, he was married and divorced no less than five times and was on less than salubrious terms with his three surviving sons. Nonetheless, by 1929 Getty was well on the way to becoming a multimillionaire, and the onset of the Great Depression only accelerated that trend. As the national malaise increased, he quickly bought up millions of dollars in stocks at a fraction of their costs, confident—and correctly so—that their value would increase with time. By 1936, his success spurred him to acquire Pacific Western, the largest oil concern in California. That same year, he also engaged in an internecine struggle with Standard Oil of New Jersey to gain control of the Tidewater Associated Oil Company, another large and lucrative business. In 1936, he had to settle for controlling 40 percent of company stock, but in 1950, he had finally consolidated his hold.

By 1939, Getty was one of the world’s richest men, and he frequently visited Europe to acquire rare art, his lifelong passion. He also socialized with many of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler’s circle, which made the American government suspect his loyalties. Accordingly, when the United States entered World War II in 1941, Getty applied for a naval commission but was denied. He nevertheless acquired control of the Spartan Aircraft Company and produced training aircraft for the armed forces. After the war, Getty took his interest in oil exploration overseas. In 1949, he paid the kingdom of Saudi Arabia $30 million for rights to explore the Neutral Zone between that nation and Kuwait. After many unsuccessful years of drilling, Getty tapped into the fabulous oil reserves of the Middle East. By 1956, he was touted as the world’s richest man and its first acknowledged billionaire. Getty himself simply shrugged off celebrity and concentrated on what he did best—making money. By 1957, he had consolidated control over the three pillars of his commercial empire—Tidewater, Mission, and Skelly Oil—which were subsequently amalgamated into the new Getty Oil Company. Thanks to Getty’s foresight, this functioned as a completely self-contained entity managing its own exploration, refining, marketing, and distribution of petroleum products. Its dramatic success further demonstrated Getty’s business acumen and his indomitable will to prevail.

With time, Getty also acquired a reputation, deservedly or not, for a degree of eccentricity rivaling that of his great contemporary, Howard HUGHES. He deliberately cultivated a miserly, grasping persona, reinforced by stories of his rumpled outfits, his refusal to leave tips at restaurants, and the installation of payphones on his lavish European estate. Most stories, in fact, were exaggerated, but Getty did little to disown them. He also gained renown as a serious art collector who built a world-class institution, the J. Paul Getty Museum, to house and display his treasures. When he died at his mansion in Sutton, England, on June 6, 1976, he endowed the museum with $2 billion, rendering it the world’s richest. Getty may have been a curmudgeon by nature and difficult to influence on a personal level, but his spectacular career in the unpredictable oil industry underscores his reputation as the 20th century’s foremost oilman.

J. Paul Getty (1892–1976) oil magnate

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