John McMillan; Longtime Oil Industry Executive

John R. McMillan, a retired oil industry executive and consultant whose lengthy ties to petroleum products made him one of the last of his generation of wildcatters, has died at his Pasadena home.

His daughter, Linda Bozung, said her father was 83 when he died Sunday of a heart attack.

Born in Vermont, he came to California as a youth and earned a degree from Caltech. He later became president of the Associates of Caltech, one of the institution’s primary support groups, and endowed a chair in geophysics at the Pasadena campus.

McMillan started with the Barnsdall Oil Co. as a petroleum engineer and over the years worked for Fullerton Oil Co., Monterey Oil Co., Transwestern Pipeline in Houston and Humble Oil and Refining.

More recently, he had been president and chief executive officer of Reserve Oil & Gas Co.. After its purchase by Getty Oil, McMillan became a consultant to Getty and then Texaco.

In 1982 he was named Wildcat Oil Man of the Year. He served on President Richard M. Nixon’s Petroleum Council and was a former president of the Western Oil and Gas Assn.

A widower, he is survived by another daughter, Laurie A. Dodson, and three grandchildren.

A memorial service is scheduled Saturday at 2 p.m. at the Annandale Golf Club in Pasadena.