Robert O. Anderson, for many years chairman of the Atlantic Richfield Company and the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies, discoverer of the Prudhoe Bay Oil Field, rancher and philanthropist.
In 1987, the British biographer Kenneth Harris wrote that Robert O. Anderson began in the oil industry with a one-third share in a small refinery employing a dozen or so men, and by a series of purchases and mergers built up what became the seventh largest oil company in the United States, with himself as chairman, chief executive and major shareholder. Beginning with no land at all, he became the largest in
idual rancher in the United States. He was twice asked to fill an unexpired term in the United States Senate, twice asked to serve as American ambassador to Great Britain, and once offered the position of Secretary of the Treasury. At one time or another he held every non elective office in the national Republican Party. A personal friend of three American presidents, his advice was frequently solicited by other residents of the White House. Under his chairmanship, and with his financial backing, the Aspen Institute was transformed from an inward-looking academic institution into an international authority on world affairs. He was a patron of the theater, music and the opera. A museum was built and named for him. He was a famous breeder of cattle and horses, an avid sportsman and a pioneer environmentalist. His acquisition of a great British newspaper preserved its character and editorial independence.
For these and other reasons, Harris concluded, it seems desirable that his life and activities be recorded.
Born in Chicago on April 13, 1917, Robert Orville Anderson won an international reputation as an oil executive, rancher, environmentalist, diplomat, philanthropist and civic leader. The son of Hugo and Hilda Nelson Anderson, he was educated at The University of Chicagos Laboratory Elementary and High schools and in 1939 was graduated from The University of Chicago. In the same year he married his college sweetheart, Barbara Herrick Phelps.
PWhile a college student, Mr. Anderson had worked during summer vacations as an oil pipeline maintenance worker near Corpus Christi, Texas, an experience that helped
ert his interest from architecture to petroleum. From 1939 to 1941 he worked in the Chicago
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