Frank Phillips

ABOUT FRANK PHILLIPS

Oil Industrialist who founded Phillips Petroleum in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, which later merged with the Conoco Oil Company. He led his oil company as president until he turned 65.

His first business venture entailed hiring farmers to dig potatoes for 10 cents a day.

He originally wanted to be a big-time banker, but the outbreak of World War I made oil prices skyrocket and his company a fortune.

He married Jane Gibson in 1897. They had a son and adopted two daughters.

He and Edwin Drake were both entrepreneurs who worked in the oil industry.