Augustus ‘Gus’ Long, 97; Led Texaco’s Vast Growth
Augustus “Gus” C. Long, who as its tough, charismatic chairman expanded Texaco Inc. through North and Central America during one of the oil company’s largest growth periods in the 1950s and 1960s, has died at the age of 97.
Long died Thursday at his home in North, Va., of the natural consequences of aging, officials of the now combined ChevronTexaco Corp. announced.
Except for stints in the U.S. Navy, Long spent his entire career with what was originally called Texas Co., beginning as a service station supervisor in Miami in 1930 and retiring from the board in 1977.
Long was named president in 1953, and was chairman of the board and chief executive officer from 1956 to 1965. He remained active on the board, chaired its executive committee and, at the board’s request, left retirement to work again as chief executive officer from September 1970 through 1971.
“Gus Long was a towering figure among the business leaders of his day,” James W. Kinnear, another former Texaco president and CEO, said in a statement from the company. “He reveled in competition, he inspired his associates, and he set an example of unswerving ethical behavior with his own sure moral compass.”
Like most business magnates, however, Long was not without critics. When Texaco suffered even more than other oil companies from oil’s high prices and short supplies in the 1970s, many pointed to Long’s rigid control during the previous two decades.
Texaco insiders, assessing Long’s business style for a 1980 BusinessWeek article, characterized the former chairman as a domineering oilman who established an inflexible corporate culture and “tended to surround himself with yes men.”
Tough and tightfisted with both money and decision-making, Long had to sign off on the most minute expenses, they said, including replacing rusted storage tanks and remodeling a service station.
Company strategy was whatever Long pronounced it to be, and long-range planning centered on the premise--later proved wrong--that crude oil would remain cheap and plentiful forever.
Yet, as Forbes magazine pointed out a year after Long retired from the Texaco board, he dominated the company longer than any other chief executive in its history. With his exuberance, charm and humor, Long awed his boosters and detractors alike. Most credit him with impressive guidance during Texaco’s early years as a multinational.
Glenn F. Tilton, former Texaco chairman and CEO and current vice chairman of ChevronTexaco, said in a statement: “Gus Long’s leadership and business acumen were recognized throughout the industry. He led the company during a period of growth and expansion, and met head-on the challenges of running a worldwide integrated oil company in the 1950s and 1960s.”
Born in Starke, Fla., the son of a federal court judge, Long graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1926 and served at sea for four years before joining Texaco. In 1932, he was promoted to general manager of Texaco’s marketing company in Ireland and two years after that took over marketing in the Netherlands.
Recalled to duty during World War II, Long utilized both Navy training and oil industry skills to work in London as coordinator of petroleum supplies for the Allied forces.
After the war, he was appointed vice president for marketing for Caltex Petroleum Corp., jointly owned by Texaco and Standard Oil Co. of California (later Chevron).
In 1949, he was elected Texaco vice president in charge of international operations for the Eastern Hemisphere. He advanced to executive vice president in 1951, and two years later assumed the presidency.
During his tenure as CEO, Long acquired Trinidad Oil Co. (now Texaco Trinidad Inc.), Seaboard Oil Co., the Paragon group of fuel and heating oil companies, and the White Fuel companies.
To increase production fields, in 1962 he bought mineral rights to 2 million acres of West Texas from TXL Oil Corp. and two years later acquired Superior Oil Co. of Venezuela.
Active in charitable and cultural groups, Long served on the board of Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York for 20 years, four of them as chairman. He was also on the board of the Miami Heart Assn. Widowed in 1963 by the death of his first wife, Elizabeth Walsh, Long is survived by his second wife, Doris Ann Penrose, and three daughters.
