Frederic C. Hamilton (September 25, 1927 – September 30, 2016) was the chairman of The Hamilton Companies LLC, a loosely connected group of companies focused on
oil production
Petroleum is a fossil fuel that can be drawn from beneath the earth's surface. Reservoirs of petroleum was formed through the mixture of plants, algae, and sediments in shallow seas under high pressure. Petroleum is mostly recovered from oil dr ...
, real estate holdings and educational institutions.
Frederic C. Hamilton founded Hamilton Oil Corporation in the late 1960s. He built it into an international oil company as well as a domestic gas company, both of which he merged into a major integrated oil company in the mid-1980s. At the time of his death Hamilton was the Chairman of The Hamilton Companies, which is active in venture capital,
private equity
In the field of finance, the term private equity (PE) refers to investment funds, usually limited partnerships (LP), which buy and restructure financially weak companies that produce goods and provide services. A private-equity fund is both a typ ...
, oil and gas, real estate, mortgage lending, securities and acquisitions operations.
Fred Hamilton was inducted into the Colorado Business Hall of Fame by Junior Achievement-Rocky Mountain and the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce in 2010.
Early life
Hamilton was born in
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, an ...
, but spent much of his childhood in
Springfield, Illinois
Springfield is the capital of the U.S. state of Illinois and the county seat and largest city of Sangamon County. The city's population was 114,394 at the 2020 census, which makes it the state's seventh most-populous city, the second largest ...
. He was educated at
Millbrook and
Lawrenceville School
The Lawrenceville School is a coeducational preparatory school for boarding and day students located in the Lawrenceville section of Lawrence Township, in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. Lawrenceville is a member of the Eight Scho ...
s and
Babson College
Babson College is a private business school in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Established in 1919, its central focus is on entrepreneurship education. It was founded by Roger W. Babson as an all-male business institute, but became coeducational ...
.
He also served in the
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army S ...
. Hamilton began his career as a
roughneck
Roughneck is a term for a person whose occupation is hard manual labor. The term applies across a number of industries, but is most commonly associated with the workers on a drilling rig. The ideal of the hard-working, tough roughneck has been ...
and
roustabout
Roustabout (Australian English, Australia/New Zealand English, New Zealand English: rouseabout) is an occupational term. Traditionally, it referred to a worker with broad-based, non-specific skills. In particular, it was used to describe show ...
in the
oil fields of
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
.
Oil exploration
Hamilton has been referred to as having been one of the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...
’s oil pioneers. In 1950, he started Hamilton Brothers Drilling Company along with his brother Ferris, in
Dallas, Texas
Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County wi ...
with a $5,000 loan from their mother. Their success enabled them to expand into oil and gas exploration with a partnership known as Hamilton Brothers. In 1962, this became Hamilton Brothers Oil Company and the company moved to
Denver
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the United ...
. Hamilton's family have resided in Denver for more than 50 years.
In the early '70s, Hamilton Brothers was the first company to find and produce oil in the
North Sea
The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...
. They drilled the first well in the
East China Sea and later the first in the
Barents Sea
The Barents Sea ( , also ; no, Barentshavet, ; russian: Баренцево море, Barentsevo More) is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located off the northern coasts of Norway and Russia and divided between Norwegian and Russian ter ...
, offshore
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...
. They also developed and used the first
floating production
Floating may refer to:
* a type of dental work performed on horse teeth
* use of an isolation tank
* the guitar-playing technique where chords are sustained rather than scratched
* ''Floating'' (play), by Hugh Hughes
* Floating (psychological ...
system in the world.
Philanthropy
Hamilton served as the Chairman Emeritus of the
Denver Art Museum
The Denver Art Museum (DAM) is an art museum located in the Civic Center of Denver, Colorado. With encyclopedic collections of more than 70,000 diverse works from across the centuries and world, the DAM is one of the largest art museums between ...
(DAM) Board of Trustees. He served as the DAM's Vice Chairman beginning in 1984, became Chairman of the Board of Trustees in 1994 and acted as Co-Chairman with J. Landis (Lanny) Martin from July 2011 to January 2013. He guided the museum through several major milestones, most notably the planning, financing and construction of the
Frederic C. Hamilton Building, designed by
Daniel Libeskind
Daniel Libeskind (born May 12, 1946) is a Polish–American architect, artist, professor and set designer. Libeskind founded Studio Daniel Libeskind in 1989 with his wife, Nina, and is its principal design architect.
He is known for the design ...
. It first opened to the public in October 2006. Additionally, Hamilton led two major endowment campaigns for the DAM during his tenure, growing those assets to more than $100 million. He also helped lead the fundraising effort to complete the $110 million expansion project. In recognition of his long-time support, the museum named its 146,000-square-foot expansion, the Frederic C. Hamilton Building. Hamilton was a member of the Trustees Council of the
National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of ch ...
, an alumni member of the
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...
Board of Directors, on the Board of Trustees of the Denver Area Council
Boy Scouts of America
The Boy Scouts of America (BSA, colloquially the Boy Scouts) is one of the largest scouting organizations and one of the largest List of youth organizations, youth organizations in the United States, with about 1.2 million youth partici ...
and President of the Graland Country Day School Foundation Board.
He established endowed chairs in
endocrinology
Endocrinology (from ''endocrine'' + '' -ology'') is a branch of biology
Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field ...
,
macular degeneration
Macular degeneration, also known as age-related macular degeneration (AMD or ARMD), is a medical condition which may result in blurred or no vision in the center of the visual field. Early on there are often no symptoms. Over time, however, som ...
and
skin cancer
Skin cancers are cancers that arise from the skin. They are due to the development of abnormal cells that have the ability to invade or spread to other parts of the body. There are three main types of skin cancers: basal-cell skin cancer (BC ...
research at the
University of Colorado School of Medicine
The University of Colorado School of Medicine is the medical school of the University of Colorado system. It is located at the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, Colorado, one of the four University of Colorado campuses, six miles east of down ...
and created endowments at
NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital The NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is a nonprofit academic medical center in New York City affiliated with two Ivy League medical schools, Cornell University and Columbia University. The hospital comprises seven distinct campuses located in the New ...
/
Weill Cornell Medical College
The Joan & Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University is Cornell University's biomedical research unit and medical school located in Upper East Side, Manhattan, New York City, New York.
Weill Cornell Medicine is affiliated with Ne ...
for research and for clinical scholars.
Hamilton was a lifetime trustee at
Graland Country Day School where several buildings bear his name, including the Frederic C. Hamilton Gymnasium and classroom buildings named Hamilton West and Hamilton East. With
Scott Reiman
Scott Reiman is a Denver-based businessman who is president of the Reiman Foundation and founder and president of Hexagon, Inc., a private investment company, and has served as President since 1992. Hexagon engages in marketable securities, real ...
, he also funded a large portion of the Hamilton-Reiman Building which houses Graland's library and performing arts theater.
Hamilton's past corporate directorships include: Chairman,
Tejas Gas Corporation; Director,
BHP Petroleum
BHP Group Limited (formerly known as BHP Billiton) is an Australian Multinational corporation, multinational mining, metals, natural gas petroleum public company that is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
The Broken Hill Propri ...
;
Celanese Corporation
Celanese Corporation, formerly known as Hoechst Celanese, is an American technology and specialty materials company headquartered in Irving, Texas. A Fortune 500 corporation, the company is the world’s leading producer of acetic acid, produci ...
;
First National Bancorporation
First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1).
First or 1st may also refer to:
*World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement
Arts and media Music
* 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...
;
Gates Learjet;
IntraWest Financial Corporation;
ITT Corporation
ITT Inc., formerly ITT Corporation, is an American worldwide manufacturing company based in Stamford, Connecticut. The company produces specialty components for the aerospace, transportation, energy and industrial markets. ITT's three businesse ...
;
International Mining Corporation;
United States Tmst Co.;
Norwest Corporation
Norwest Corporation was a banking and financial services company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. In 1998, it merged with Wells Fargo & Co. and since that time has operated under the Wells Fargo name.
History Early formation
Th ...
;
Permian Corporation;
Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken International Corporation;
United Banks of Colorado and
Volvo International
The Volvo International, also known as the Pilot Pen International, was a professional tennis tournament played on clay courts from 1973 to 1984 and on outdoor hard courts from 1985 to 1998. It was first held at the Mount Washington Resort in B ...
Board.
Notable endowments
*2003 Frederic C Hamilton Building at the
Denver Art Museum
The Denver Art Museum (DAM) is an art museum located in the Civic Center of Denver, Colorado. With encyclopedic collections of more than 70,000 diverse works from across the centuries and world, the DAM is one of the largest art museums between ...
*Endocrinology Chair at the
University of Colorado School of Medicine
The University of Colorado School of Medicine is the medical school of the University of Colorado system. It is located at the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, Colorado, one of the four University of Colorado campuses, six miles east of down ...
.
*Newman Center,
University of Denver
The University of Denver (DU) is a private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Univ ...
.
*Ritchie Center,
University of Denver
The University of Denver (DU) is a private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Univ ...
.
*
American Federation of Arts
The American Federation of Arts (AFA) is a nonprofit organization that creates art exhibitions for presentation in museums around the world, publishes exhibition catalogues, and develops education programs. The organization’s founding in 1909 ...
*Denver Children's Hospital
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamilton, Frederic C.
Babson College alumni
Businesspeople from Columbus, Ohio
Businesspeople from Denver
People from Springfield, Illinois
American businesspeople in the oil industry
2016 deaths
1927 births
20th-century American businesspeople