Harold Hamm
Harold Hamm
“If Harold Hamm did not exist, Oklahoma would have to invent him. Because I can think of no one who better personifies the virtues of our state—hard work, vision, perseverance and public service.”
Biography
Harold Hamm is the epitome of the self-made Oklahoman who loves and supports his native state. His family was a hearty set of share-crop farmers who earned their livelihood by raising crops and livestock and chopping and picking cotton. Hamm moved from his boyhood home of Lexington to Enid at age 16, where he attended high school and worked at a Champlin Products Service Station. After graduation from high school, he was unable to afford college so he worked for an oilfield service contractor and Champlin Petroleum Company before taking up payments on a used tank-truck and borrowing $1,000 on a co-signed note to start up his own one-truck oilfield service business. Hamm used this entry into the oil and gas industry to pick the brains of local engineers and geologists on everything from the drilling process to the production of oil.
Fun fact
Harold Hamm's first company, Shelly Dean Oil Company, was named after his two oldest daughters.
Oklahoma connections
Born in Lexington, Oklahoma, Hamm founded his first business in Enid and continues to operate from Oklahoma today.