William Skelly
William Skelly was born in Erie, Pennsylvania, United States on June 10th, 1878 and is the Entrepreneur. At the age of 78, William Skelly biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, and networth are available.
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William Grove Skelly (June 10, 1878 to April 11, 1957), also known as Bill or William G. Skelly, was an entrepreneur who made a name for himself in the oil business.
Born in Erie, Pennsylvania, he migrated to Kansas in 1916 and then to Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1919, where he established Skelly Oil Company.
His company was one of the country's top independent oil and fuel suppliers by 1923.
He helped organize the first International Petroleum Exposition in Tulsa in 1923 and then became the president of the company, a position he held for the remainder of his life.
He was a founder of the Kansas-Oklahoma branch of the United States Oil and Gas Association, later known as Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association.Skelly became a leading promoter of the aviation industry, although he was not a pilot.
He bought the financially struggling Mid-Continent Aircraft Company and turned it into the profitable Spartan Aircraft Company in 1926.
In 1928, he was one of the first donors to create the Tulsa Municipal Airport.
He founded the Spartan School of Aeronautics in October 1928, and he was involved in other charitable causes.
In 1930 and 1947, he gifted money to the University of Tulsa for a football stadium and KWGS, the first FM radio station in Oklahoma.
Early life
Bill Skelly was one of six children born to William and Mary Jane Sweatman Skelly. Even though he was still in grammar school, he started earning money by selling newspapers. He attended a business school for a year after leaving public school at the age of 14. He spent time in Venango County, Pennsylvania, with his father hauling oil-well supplies to oil fields. He became a tool dresser in the Venango fields shortly.
The Spanish–American War broke out in 1898. Skelly was enlisted in the Sixteenth Pennsylvania Volunteers and served in the Battle of Coamo in Puerto Rico. He became the founder of the Citizens Gas Company in Gas City, Indiana, where he learned the methods of transporting and monitoring natural gas through pipelines.
Career in oil and gas production
Observing the fortunes made by others during the oil booms of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, Skelly decided to become an independent producer. After a brief stay in Texas, he moved to El Dorado, Kansas, in 1916, where he began operating his Midland Refining Company in 1917. In 1919, he incorporated Skelly Oil Company and moved his headquarters to Tulsa.
In 1923, while serving as president of the Tulsa Chamber of Commerce, Skelly helped organize the first International Petroleum Exposition (IPE). This was a trade fair that attracted oil producers and equipment manufacturers from all over the country. He became president of the IPE in 1925 and held that position for the rest of his life.