Clint Murchison Sr., born in 1895, was the son of a banker, John Weldon Murchison, owner of the First National Bank of Athens, Texas. Murchison’s … [read more]instinctive mastery of banking and lending practices translated easily into an understanding of the new business of oil and gas exploration. Murchison is widely credited as the most financially sophisticated of the early oilmen. Murchison was instrumental in the initiation of a number of financial innovations in the oil fields, reportedly including the novel concept of reserve based financing. By 1919, Clint Murchison Sr., at the age of 24, along with his childhood friend Sid Richardson, founder of the Bass family fortune, had both become millionaires trading in oil leases in one of the early Texas boomtowns, Burkburnett, Texas. [hide]

In 1929, Murchison officially merged his far flung gas operations into a single gas pipeline company, Southern Union Gas Company. Murchison would … [read more]build and finance the pipelines.  Through the worst months of the Great Depression, Murchison continued to sign up new customers for Southern Union, and barely 2 years after its founding he was servicing 43 cities in 6 states.

Murchison’s knowledge of banking combined with his understanding of the oil and gas industry in the United States spared him from the hardship of the Great Depression and put the foundation in place for amassing a great family fortune. During his remaining career, Murchison expanded his operations into real estate development, railroads, and banking, but he never abandoned the base he had created in oil and gas exploration and production. He is credited with pioneering the development of the San Juan Basin in the 1950s, one of the most prolific producing hydrocarbon basins in the United States. [hide]

John Sr. had acted as one of the founders of Southwest Airlines, was one of the two founders and co-owners of the Dallas Cowboys Football Franchise, … [read more]privately held significant oil and gas reserves as well as exceptional real properties. He was also the co-owner of majority stakes in three publicly traded oil and gas companies and the largest home development company in the United States. John Sr. was a pillar of the Dallas community. He was a prominent Board member of the First National Bank of Dallas and a well known philanthropist spearheading the construction of the Dallas Museum of Art. [hide]

In 1985, John began an aggressive program of acquisitions for the Company. The two cornerstone acquisitions made for the Company were the San Juan … [read more]Basin properties owned by the estate of his father and his uncle in 1986 and the “Mesa” leases acquired from "Mesa Petroleum” in 1989. These two cornerstone acquisitions largely remain in the Company today. [hide]

John D. Murchison III, John’s sole heir, joined the Company in 2011. Like his forefathers, J.D. started his career in banking. Prior to joining the … [read more]Company, J.D. worked at some of Europe’s most reputable financial institutions. John is excited to have his son and heir as an integral part of the Company. The legacy lives on. [hide]