William Myron Keck

William Myron Keck (April 27, 1880 – August 20, 1964) was an American businessman and philanthropist. He was best known as the founder of Superior Oil Company. on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad to support his mother.

Business career Drilling as a speculator In his younger years, he became a "roustabout" in the oil business in Pennsylvania, before making his way to California, where he worked as a speculator, drilling wells on contract for big oil companies. He often would take payment as leases instead of cash. and in California's Kettleman Hills oil fields. Keck was very successful as an oil prospector. In one instance at the height of the 1920s oil boom in Los Angeles, he was the only "wildcatter" to retain a lease on 300 acres of Andrew Joughin's farm outside Torrance. While other prospectors turned away from the property, Keck's "46 highly productive wells were considered one of California's most successful oil-drilling projects".

Author Kevin Krajick has described Keck as "the world's greatest oil prospector, a man whose instincts about the location of petroleum were so uncanny, some believed him clairvoyant." He was one of the first oilmen to move his business to Houston, Texas, Upon his death in 1964, his son William M. Keck Jr. became Superior's chief executive officer, He served as chairman of Superior. At one point, his fortune was estimated at $160 million, and at the time of his death, he and his family owned 51 per cent of Superior's shares.

Personal life He had several children with his wife, Alice Bertha Cominski: Willametta Keck, Howard Keck, and William M. Keck Jr.

Death and legacy Keck died in 1964. Most of his estate was left to his three children, and he also left five beneficiary trusts for USC, Stanford, Pomona College, Occidental College and the Church of Our Savior in San Gabriel.

Although his estate was estimated to be worth upward of $160 million, he died owing $36.4 million to three banks in New York and Texas. He left his widow, Sylvia Jean Keck, with "$400,000 outright and trust income from 4,000 shares of stock valued at $6.34 million."