Hunt Petroleum heir engineered its sale

Tom Hunt, 85, the former chairman of Hunt Petroleum who helped engineer the company’s multibillion-dollar sale earlier this year, died Tuesday of leukemia at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas.

The nephew of famed Texas wildcatter H.L. Hunt, Tom Hunt engineered the $4.19-billion sale of Hunt Petroleum to XTO Energy just five months ago.

Despite his family’s vast fortunes -- his uncle was once considered the world’s wealthiest man -- Hunt lived simply. He never married and lived in a town house.

Hunt was born in Pana, Ill., the son of James and Emma Caroline Hunt. He served in the Army Air Corps during World War II and was on the first bomber to land in Japan. After the war, he studied chemical engineering at the University of Arkansas until his uncle recruited him into the family oil business.

Hunt secured land in Wyoming and North Dakota for oil exploration and eventually moved to Louisiana to oversee the family’s operations there.