The Passing of My Friend, Roy Huffington
By Dr. Krishna Dronamraju
Last Updated: July 25, 2008

HOUSTON ¬- Roy Huffington, Chairman of the Board, Asia Society, Salzburg Seminars and numerous other bodies, as well as a successful retired oilman, passed away quietly last week in Venice, Italy. Among other accomplishments, he was U.S. Ambassador to Austria.

Roy achieved much during his lifetime, but that is not the only reason for remembering him today. He was immensely human, a very kind and compassionate man both on the personal level as well as on the global level. He was always polite and courteous to everyone and a true gentleman. He was a decent man, a loyal and dependable friend. He was especially fond of Asia and visited India numerous times. He was a friend of the Indian community.

Roy was born in Tomball, Texas and moved to Dallas during the Great Depression. He grew up early. His father had died in an accident in the oil fields of Venezuela before Roy was 14, so to help his mother and sister make ends meet, he woke up at 4:30 every morning to deliver two newspapers. Later, he supported himself while earning his Ph.D. in geology from Harvard University. During World War II, he served as a naval officer aboard the aircraft carrier USS Hornet. Then, following a decade working as a geologist for Humble Oil Company (now Exxon Mobil), he went out on his own as a wildcatter in the mid 1950s. His former daughter-in-law and CNN correspondent Ariana Huffington wrote that Roy Huffington was an oilman when oil exploration was still a romantic endeavor.

In 1956 he founded Huffco, an oil and gas firm that began exploration in Indonesia in the late 1960s. Discoveries in East Kalimantan led to the development of a multi-billion dollar LNG export project between Indonesia and Japan, which became a major source of revenue for the country. Furthermore, Huffington generously shared technology and knowledge with his Indonesian.

A major gas strike there in 1972 led to a 25-year joint venture between Huffco and the Indonesian government. Huffington sold Huffco to the Chinese Petroleum Corporation for $600 million in 1990, when he was appointed as U.S. Ambassador to Austria by President George H.W. Bush from 1990 to 1993. As ambassador, he worked to open business opportunities between the newly accessible Eastern bloc countries and the West. Upon returning to the United States following his term as ambassador, he renewed his involvement in oil and gas investment.

Roy Huffington was not your typical Texas oil man. He never wore a cowboy hat. He was a soft spoken and quiet man who was a well educated scholar. Although a generous philanthropist, he did not lead an extravagant life nor flaunted his wealth.

Roy’s philanthropy was legendary. In Dallas, one of Southern Methodist University’s oldest and most distinguished academic departments was renamed for Huffington in March in recognition of a gift of more than $10 million. The gift endowed the Department of Earth Sciences in SMU’s Dedman College, now renamed the Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences. Roy Huffington, who received his bachelor’s degree in geology from SMU in 1938, had given SMU more than $20 million in the last two years and a total of more than $31 million over many years of support for the University. In fall 2006, he provided more than $10 million in endowments for faculty support and student scholarships at SMU. In Houston, he established the Huffington Center for Aging at Baylor College of Medicine and supported numerous other charities.

Roy Huffington also supported his son when he used his $70 million share of the Huffco sale to run for Congress in 1992. The younger Huffington won that race and two years later mounted a spectacularly expensive campaign challenge to Diane Feinstein in her California Senate race. Michael Huffington lost his Senate bid despite spending more of his personal fortune -- $28 million -- than any candidate in history.

His wife of 58 years, the former Phyllis Gough, died in 2003. He is survived by his son, Michael, of Los Angeles, Boston and Houston; his daughter, Terry Huffington, of Houston; and four granddaughters. In an interview with Forbes Magazine, Roy Huffington said he liked drilling for oil because of his fascination with geology. “It’s good to peel back the earth and see the history of the world,” he said, adding that by comparison, “our lifetimes are but a fraction of a second.”

Dr. Krishna R. Dronamraju is President of the Foundation for Genetic Research and a longtime resident of Houston.