Charles E. Spahr

Charles Eugene Spahr (October 8, 1913 – April 7, 2009) was the youngest person to be appointed President of Sohio (Standard Oil of Ohio). He was then appointed as CEO of Sohio from 1959 to 1977, and was instrumental in the building of the Alaskan Pipeline.

Early life Spahr's grandfather, Moses Spahr, was a Methodist minister, sent to minister in the Coffeyville, Kansas, area, located on the southern Kansas border, prior to Oklahoma becoming a state. Growing up on a small family farm in Independence, Missouri, Spahr’s father worked at the nearby Sugar Creek refinery location of the Standard Oil Company of Indiana.

Education and early career Spahr's first job was an overturning apples at a cider mill. He finished high school in 1930 and entered the University of Kansas. Graduating with his bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering in 1934, he was a member of the Theta Tau Professional Engineering Fraternity and of the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society.

Spahr worked his way through college during the Great Depression by binding books for the engineering program, and working as chauffeur for Chancellor Ernest Lindley. He would later give money to the University of Kansas, which helped fund the construction of a large classroom in the new School of Engineering building Following his graduation from the University of Kansas, he worked as a boiler operator at the Sugar Creek Refinery in Sugar Creek, Missouri.

He then went to work for Phillips Petroleum Company in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, as assistant to the vice-president of Engineering. After three years, he did graduate studies in industrial management at Harvard Business School.

Marriage When he was on Christmas holiday at home, his sister Marjorie arranged him a date with her school classmate Mary Jane Bruckmiller, who became his wife in 1937. He married Mary Jane Bruckmiller of Sugar Creek just before leaving for Harvard. Her father was a superintendent at the Sugar Creek refinery where Spahr's father was employed as a foreman. The two men knew one another. During their marriage, Charles and Mary Jane had five children: Sally, Steve, Cynthia, Stephanie, and Susan. Stephanie and Susan are twins.

Standard Oil career path Spahr's first job after graduating from college was as an analytical statistician at the Sugar Creek refinery with a monthly salary of $100. as director of the supply and transportation division. he gained significant experience in pipeline installation while making important military connections. During the war he helped "build 1,800 miles of pipeline in Burma and supervised construction of a 570-mile section of the India-Burma-China emergency fuel pipeline to supply gasoline for long-range bombers."