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- The New York Times, June 2, 2006
Perry R. Bass, Patriarch of Fames Texas Oil Family, Dies
Perry R. Bass, the patriarch of a family that came to symbolize wealth and oil in Texas, died yesterday at the age of 91.
Mr. Bass was at the center of a family business that traces its origins to Sid Richardson, the Texas wildcatter who borrowed $40 from Mr. Bass?s mother during the Depression and struck the Keystone and Slaughter oil fields in West Texas.
On his death in 1959, Mr. Richardson, a bachelor, gave most of his money to charity, but set aside about $11 million in oil properties and real estate for his only nephew, Perry.
Mr. Bass learned the oil business at the elbow of his uncle, who used to conduct business out of a Fort Worth drugstore. With his uncle?s training and money, Mr. Bass set up Bass Brothers Enterprises in 1960, to manage the family?s enormous oil and ranching interests, including the Sid Richardson Energy Services Company, which the family sold late last year for $1.6 billion.
But, as soon as he could, Mr. Bass groomed his four sons to take over the business, which blossomed under the guidance of Mr. Bass?s eldest son, Sid. Forbes magazine estimated the family fortune last year to be over $9 billion, although it had been as high as $11 billion, several years ago.
Once Mr. Bass gave the reins to Sid, the family diversified its holdings outside of energy by buying stakes in undervalued companies and then pushing for management changes. Some paid off and some did not: One target, Texaco, paid Mr. Bass and his sons $400 million in greenmail to go away; stock market reverses after Sept. 11, however, forced the family to sell about $2 billion in Disney shares.
Yet for all the family?s swashbuckling history ? and for their financial ups and downs ? they have remained extremely private, shunning the press and refusing interviews. One glimpse of the family fortune came in 1980 when Mr. Bass had to file a financial disclosure statement when he became chairman of the Texas State Parks and Wildlife Commission. It showed the family collected royalties from 68 oil companies in 12 states and owned a large part of downtown Fort Worth.
Perry Richardson Bass was born on Nov. 11, 1914, in Wichita Falls, Tex. Soft-spoken, Mr. Bass graduated from the Hill School in Pottstown, Pa., and in 19837 graduated with a degree in geology from Yale. He later donated $20 million to build a molecular biology center at Yale.
A passionate conservationist and outdoorsman, Mr. Bass was also an expert sailor. He was navigator for Ted Turner?s American Eagle when it won the World?s Open Racing Championship in 1972.
Under the family?s leadership and philanthropy, downtown Fort Worth was transformed from a collection of storefronts to a glistening urban center. The renovation included the Nancy Lee & Perry R. Bass Performance Hall, which was opened in 1998 and is host to such events as the Van Cliburn international piano competition. Mr. Bass and his wife, Nancy Lee Bass, who survives him, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 1991 by giving $1 million to each of 50 different institutions.
Three of Mr. Bass?s sons ? Sid, Lee and Edward ? invested with their father. In 1983, a fourth son, Robert, broke away to form his own investment firm. Mr. Bass is also survived by all his sons.
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Bassett Family Association Database
1914 - 2006 (91 years)