J. (Jack) M. Graves
J. (Jack) M. Graves
“We have to set an example. A good, slick campaign to promote the industry would be great, but what you do speaks louder than what you say.”
Biography
Prominent independent oilman and Oklahoma native Jack Graves began his career in 1947 and worked for Republic Exploration Co., Texas Seismograph Company, and Phillips Petroleum before starting his own oil and gas company in 1958. He founded the Oklahoma Energy Center and served on the OU Development Committee and became president of the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association of America and the Interstate Oil Compact Commission. He has served as a director of ONEOK, Inc., the Tulsa Area United Way, Tulsa’s Philharmonic, and the Nature Conservancy. Graves was also served as president and chairman of the finance committee of the Indian Nation Boy Scout Council.
Fun fact
Jack Graves was working on a seismographic crew “looking for something to do in the evening” when he ordered a Penn State University correspondence course in physical geology. The kit arrived with a textbook, rock hammer, and a box of rocks and minerals and he decided that “this is not work, this is fun. I am going to be a geologist.”
Oklahoma connections
Graves was born in Wagoner, Oklahoma.