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Oklahoma Geological Foundation’s 2022 Honoree Thomas E. Berry (1906-1977)

 

Thomas Edward Berry was an oil man, which is to say, not your average person. He was born December 4, 1906, raised in Ripley, Oklahoma, where he once flew an airplane under a bridge, attended Oklahoma A&M College for several years, and became a member of the Sigma Nu Fraternity.

 

His father, Thomas Nelson Berry sent Thomas E., then at age 20, to East Texas to see what the excitement in the oil industry was all about. This learning venture resulted in an investment in wells like the Barnwell Brawley and many others in Texas and Payne County and allowed the Berry Family to establish the Thomas N. Berry & Co. in 1937.

 

The Board of Directors consisted of Tom’s father, his mother, two brothers and five sisters. Thomas N. Berry’s brother, James E. Berry was a banker and Oklahoma’s Lieutenant Governor for twenty-sic years, whose branch of the family became known as “The Banking Berrys” while Thomas N. Berry’s family became the “The Oil Berrys”. Health issues resulted in Thomas Nelson having to turn the management of T.N. Berry & Co. to Thomas E. and his mother, Virginia Patton Berry. Both ran the office and performed other duties for the Company which then had several roustabout crews operating out of Ripley.

 

In 1949, at age 45, Tom was proclaimed “Wildcatter Berry” by the Sunday newspaper supplement. PARADE Magazine, in recognition of the success he had then achieved in the oil business. The article discussed his approach to the oil business, but it barely scratched the surface of this unique individual’s talent.

 

As for the oil business, he often remarked that he could explain the oil business to a person but could not understand it for them. He was disappointed by how misunderstood the independent oil producers were by those who saw no difference between major oil companies and independents.

 

He enjoys describing his methos of finding oil as being the same as Lazarus in the Bible who longed to feed on the crumbs of food that were falling from the rich man’s table, namely by focusing on prospects the major oil companies did not want to fool with.

 

It is difficult to describe Thomas E. Berry without noting his many interests other than the oil business but which, in his very inquiring and absorbent mind, were all somehow related to the business. Water and farmland were very important to him. He was always on the lookout for “good bottom land.”

 

He was very well versed in a variety of topics and wrote the popular “Tom Berry Says” articles for the Tulsa Tribune Newspaper almost daily from 1950 to 1956. A couple of examples of his articles reveal the flavor of his journalism: “Running a farm or any other business without a plan is like trying to run an automobile without a mixture of water and kerosene.” Also, he wrote, “When you hear a fellow bragging about how honest his is, you had better watch out. With all these politicians getting up and hollering for a New Deal, a Fair Deal, and a Square Deal, I am afraid the public is going to get a Raw Deal.” He raised world class Jackasses and enjoyed training and hunting his thirty to forty Virginia Walker hound dogs. The Jack business began during World War II when tractors and gasoline were scarce. The Jacks were able to pull farm implements as well as haul pipe and other heavy equipment in the oil patch. At the estate auction held at his Cimarron Valley Jack Farm, sixty-eight Jacks were sold to buyers who knew that Tom’s Jacks would be top quality.

 

As to his hounds, he and they knew each other’s names. He would hunt them after midnight while he and, usually, Art Griffith (former OSU Wrestling Coach with eight NCAA Championships) followed the hounds’ action in his car while driving along various section line roads and often arguing about which hound was leading and/or yapping. (They claimed to know each hound’s distinct “voice.”) If a hound could not follow the drill (such as mistakenly chasing a squirrel instead of a fox) Tom would say, “You know there are idiot dogs just like there are idiot people.”

 

He realized that complexities of the oil business required combining the talents of many different skills. In his later years, after he turned the operations of the T.N. Berry & Co. over to his brothers, Jack and William, he put together a "team" consisting of many "Oil Patch" stalwarts such as Charley Walbert (Oklahoma City), Buddy Lawrence (Tulsa), Dan Wager (Tulsa), Charles Hinton (Amarillo), Milt Thompson (Cushing), Tom Maloney (Saber Drilling), Jim Kersey (Geologist), Joe Newcomb (Geologist), and Glen Ward (Landman). No written contracts ' between the gentlemen have ever been found. This team of individuals became the foundation of Berry Operating Company.

 

His interest in water conservation and agriculture led him to prove his theory that "effluent wastewater would make good fertilizer." He contracted with the City of Stillwater to donate land for its new water treatment plant to be situated in order that the effluent created by the plant would run downhill and nourjsh the Bermuda grass on his farmland below (which he called "The Honey Hole"). Often to bewildered looks, Tom was fond of telling people, "I smile whenever I hear a toilet flush." His legacy of water conservation is currently being carried on at Oklahoma State University by the Thomas E. Berry Professorship in Water Research and Management.

 

Another important aspect of this unusual man was his role as confidant and advisor on oil and gas matters to Sylvester Tinker, Chief of the Osage Tribe for thirteen years. To avoid conflicts of interest, Tom never invested in any oil plays in the Osage Nation. Their relationship was so close that Chief Tinker memorably laid his good friend to rest with Osage burial rites.

 

Other aspects of Tom's character include his approach to deal making which was, "I do not want an unfair advantage, only a fair advantage." He would sometimes startle others in making a deal by insisting that a contract contain "Puking Privileges" by which a deal could be ended fairly without a big fuss.

 

Perhaps his view of success in the oil business is best characterized his recognition that "Luck and Pluck go together." If a deal did not appeal to him, it was a "poor fire to get warm by."

 

“I never regret the things I did, but I do regret the things I could have done but didn’t!” Thomas E. Berry 1952

 

This article was written by the Oklahoma Geological Foundation for their 2022 Legends Dinner.