J. Hugh Liedtke

J. Hugh Liedtke, "the longtime head of the Pennzoil Company who began his career by drilling scores of consecutive successful oil wells with his partner, George H. W. Bush, and went on to win billions of dollars from Texaco in a dramatic legal battle, died on Friday [2003] in Houston. He was 81...

"Mr. Liedtke was a leading member of a generation of Texas oilmen who turned their jackpots from wildcat wells into large public companies. Like his fellow oilman, T. Boone Pickens, his specialty was buying assets for less than he thought they were worth and repackaging them to make them more attractive to investors...

"John Hugh Liedtke was born on Feb. 10, 1922, in Tulsa, where his father was a lawyer for the Gulf Oil Corporation. He majored in philosophy and won departmental honors at Amherst College. His thesis was titled Religion and the Limits of Knowledge in the Philosophies of Hume, Santayana and Dewey, according to the book Oil and Honor: The Texaco-Pennzoil Wars by Thomas Petzinger Jr. (Beard Books, 1999)...

"In 1953, the brothers joined with Mr. Bush to form the Zapata Petroleum Corporation. They drilled a legendary string of 127 oil wells in the sagebrush of West Texas without one dry hole. The Liedtkes severed their business ties with the future president in 1955 but remained friends. Mr. Bush went on to own and operate offshore drilling rigs...

"Mr. Liedtke's wife, the former Betty Lyn Dirickson, died in 1992, and his brother, William, died in 1991. In addition to his son Blake, he is survived by another son, Hugh Jr., of Houston; three daughters, Karen Mark and Kristy Liedtke, both of Houston, and Katy Bade of Louisville, Ky.; and 15 grandchildren."