?Robert H. Chaney, a Houston oilman known for his extensive holdings of contemporary Asian and British art, died Oct. 22. He was also founder of the Houston-based energy-investment firm R. Chaney & Co.

Before founding the investment firm, Chaney was president and chief executive officer of Paramount Petroleum Co., which he co-founded in 1986 with Bob Schneeflock. The two built the company into a leading prospect-generating and -marketing firm, and one of the lead E&P firms in the southeastern U.S. From 1989-1993, Paramount made 30 discoveries on internally generated prospects. Chaney sold Paramount in the early 1990s, and then formed R. Chaney & Co.

An avid art collector, Chaney began collecting contemporary Asian and British art in the early 1990s. Earlier this year, ArtNews included him in its list of the world’s top 200 art collectors. He is survived by his wife, Jereann, and their daughter, Holland.

George M. Keller, former chairman and chief executive officer of Chevron Corp., has died at the age of 84. In 1984, as chairman of Standard Oil Co. of California, he helped execute the $13.3-billion takeover of Gulf Oil that formed Chevron. Keller, who lived in San Mateo, Calif., died of complications from orthopedic surgery on Oct. 17.

Sidney Kaufman, a pioneer who helped develop a seismic study that eventually led to production in the Gulf of Mexico, has died at the age of 100.

After receiving his doctorate in physics at Cornell University, Kaufman was hired by Shell Oil Inc., and in 1937 was the leader of a water-seismic team that normally operated in bays and marshes, but he found a rock formation that extended from a bay near Corpus Christi, Texas, into the Gulf of Mexico. According to an account by Shell, Kaufman rented a shrimp boat for $28 a day and ran seismic lines four miles offshore.

In a later interview, Kaufman said his supervisor was angry with him, reminding him that no one would ever drill in 65 feet of water. Several decades later, Shell put his findings to use and used that information for some of the company’s first offshore E&P operations.

Don Cook, a director and audit committee chairman since Unit Corp., Tulsa, Okla., (NYSE: UNT) was founded in 1963, died on Oct. 18. He was a partner in the accounting firm of Finley & Cook in Shawnee, Okla., from 1950 until 1987 when he retired.


“Don Cook has been an integral part of the Unit family since 1963, when King Kirchner and Don Bodard founded the company. His financial expertise and unfailing support of the company had a profound impact on Unit and all of us who were fortunate enough to have known him. He will be greatly missed,” says Unit chief executive officer Larry Pinkston.

The founder of the Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Corp. (Transco), Alfred C. Glassell Jr., has died at the age of 95.
A graduate of Louisiana State University, Glassell’s Transco built the first gas-transmission line that ran from Texas to New York. He also served on the boards of Transco, El Paso Natural Gas and First City Bank Corp.
An avid sportsman, in 1953 he set the record for the largest marlin ever caught on a hand-held rod and reel. The record has not been broken and the 1,560-pound fish is on display at the Smithsonian Institution.


In 1990 he was elected chairman of the Houston Museum of Fine Art and led a 10-year effort that resulted in the construction of the Audrey Jones Beck building. He was a life-long collector of Asian, Pre-Columbian and African art and he donated these collections to the museum.

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