Eddy Clark Scurlock (January 13, 1905 – January 17, 1988) was an American

oil industry The petroleum industry, also known as the oil industry, includes the global processes of exploration, extraction, refining, transportation (often by oil tankers and pipelines), and marketing of petroleum products. The largest volume products ...

tycoon A business magnate, also known as an industrialist or tycoon, is a person who is a powerful entrepreneur and investor who controls, through personal enterprise ownership or a dominant shareholding position, a firm or industry whose goods or ser ...

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

millionaire A millionaire is an individual whose net worth or wealth is equal to or exceeds one million units of currency. Depending on the currency, a certain level of prestige is associated with being a millionaire. Many national currencies have, or ...

, and

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...

, who founded the Scurlock Oil Company; the Eddy Refining Company; and the

charitable organization A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, Religion, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definitio ...

Scurlock Foundation in

Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

Early life

He was born in

Bronson, Texas Bronson is an unincorporated community in west central Sabine County, Texas, United States. It is located on U.S. Route 96 at the junction of State Highway 184, nine miles west of Hemphill. The ZIP Code for Bronson is 75930. Named for Sam ...

, the son of Robert William Scurlock (January 5, 1862–May 9, 1950) and Ella Octavia Clark (September 13, 1877–February 12, 1970). He had four siblings: Winona Scurlock (1902–1990), Willie Faye Scurlock (1907–1971), Juanita Clark Scurlock (1909–1985), and Werter Chappell Scurlock (1911–1985). He grew up in the small town of Tenaha. After high school, he went to work at a

Standard Oil Standard Oil Company was a Trust (business), corporate trust in the petroleum industry that existed from 1882 to 1911. The origins of the trust lay in the operations of the Standard Oil of Ohio, Standard Oil Company (Ohio), which had been founde ...

pipeline A pipeline is a system of Pipe (fluid conveyance), pipes for long-distance transportation of a liquid or gas, typically to a market area for consumption. The latest data from 2014 gives a total of slightly less than of pipeline in 120 countries ...

construction Construction are processes involved in delivering buildings, infrastructure, industrial facilities, and associated activities through to the end of their life. It typically starts with planning, financing, and design that continues until the a ...

site as a kitchen assistant. He later moved to Houston, where he bought a

gas station A filling station (also known as a gas station [] or petrol station []) is a facility that sells fuel and engine lubricants for motor vehicles. The most common fuels sold are gasoline (or petrol) and diesel fuel. Fuel dispensers are used to ...

Career

In 1936, Scurlock borrowed money and formed Scurlock Oil Company. A decade later, he bought a Houston

refinery A refinery is a production facility composed of a group of chemical engineering unit processes and unit operations refining certain materials or converting raw material into products of value. Types of refineries Different types of refineries ...

and renamed it Eddy Refining Company. His wife was Elizabeth Belschner (March 12, 1904–June 9, 2003), daughter of Andrew Belschner and Martha Quinn. They had one daughter, Laura Lee Scurlock (June 4, 1928–August 6, 1999). Laura married Jack Blanton, who became a Scurlock Oil and Eddy Refinery executive. Scurlock established and chartered the charitable Scurlock Foundation in April 1954. He was a

chairman The chair, also chairman, chairwoman, or chairperson, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the gro ...

of St. Luke's United Methodist Church, an advisory director of Texas Commerce Bank, and a director of

Lon Morris College Lon Morris College (LMC) was a private junior college located in Jacksonville, Texas, United States, and was the only school affiliated with the United Methodist Church that was owned by an individual conference and not the denomination ...

and

Texas Medical Center The Texas Medical Center (TMC) is a List of neighborhoods in Houston, neighborhood in south-central Houston, Texas, United States. It is immediately south of the Houston Museum District, Museum District and west of Texas State Highway 288. Over 6 ...

. Scurlock also benefited the Methodist Hospital System and the Institute of Religion in Houston.

Later years

In 1982, Scurlock Oil Company was sold to

Ashland Oil Ashland, Inc., is an American chemical company headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware. The company was founded in the city of Ashland, Kentucky, in 1924, where it was headquartered before moving to Wilmington in 1994. The company has five wholly o ...

. Eddy Refining Company and the Scurlock Foundation continue operations. Eddy C. Scurlock died at age 83 in Houston.Social Security Death Index, Name: Eddy C. Scurlock, Birth: Jan. 13, 1905, SSN: 456-24-7410, Issued: Texas, Death: Jan. 17, 1988, Last Residence: 77019 (Houston, Harris Co., TX).

References

External links

174 Years of Historic Houston: Who's Who - Eddy C. Scurlock
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scurlock, Eddy C. 1905 births 1988 deaths American businesspeople in the oil industry American chief executives Businesspeople from Houston 20th-century American businesspeople People from Sabine County, Texas People from Tenaha, Texas