Robert Alexander Hefner, Jr., was born in Texas and came to Oklahoma in 1909, where his father, Robert A. Hefner, became a pioneer oil man and political leader. Hefner graduated from Stanford University and studied law at Harvard before receiving his law degree from the University of Oklahoma. He opened a private law practice in Oklahoma City in 1931 and later served two years in Washington, D.C. as an assistant to the counsel for the Reconstruction Finance Commission. Before returning to Oklahoma City in 1946 to assume management of the Hefner Company, he practiced oil and gas law in Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky. Hefner founded and managed Hefner Production Co. and, under his direction, it built reserves of more than 12 billion cubic feet of natural gas and 3 million barrels of oil. He was active in forming the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association and was named Outstanding Oil Man in 1976.