Brainard, G. R., Jr., 1910-

Guy Reed “Pete” Brainard, Jr. was born September 26, 1910 in Artesia, New Mexico to parents Guy Reed and Carrie Irene (Eycke) Brainard. He attended junior college at the New Mexico Military Institute then entered Louisiana State University, receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in Petroleum Engineering in 1932. He married Lola Ward in September 1933 and had two sons, Stephen and Daniel.

Brainard’s long career in the oil business started in 1931 as a roughneck for Pugh-Hickman Drilling Company in Shreveport, Louisiana. After graduating from LSU, he joined Mid-Kansas Oil & Gas, a subsidiary of Ohio Oil (Marathon), as a roustabout, switcher, and gangpusher. In 1936, he was employed by Shell Oil Company as an exploitation engineer in the production department at Kilgore, Texas. When World War II began, Brainard was working in Shell’s Houston office. He left in March 1942 for service in the U.S. Army as an officer and company commander of an automotive maintenance battalion in the Pacific.

After the war, Brainard went back to work for Shell Oil as assistant district superintendent in Odessa, Texas, then transferred to Hobbs, New Mexico, where he became district superintendent. He left Shell in 1948 to work for Seaboard Oil Company of Dallas, Texas as assistant production manager. In 1950, he resigned from Seaboard and became production manager and vice president of Lucerne Corporation, an independent oil producer in Dallas. When Lucerne was sold in 1956, Brainard started working for Drilling and Exploration Company (Drilexco/D & E) in Dallas as vice president of the production company. He was elected president of Drilexco in 1961.

In 1963, Sinclair Oil bought D & E’s production and moved Brainard to Denver. He was transferred to Tulsa in 1965 as executive vice president of Sinclair Oil and Gas. When the company merged with Atlantic Richfield in 1969, Brainard became the manager of the Mid-Continent District. Brainard retired from ARCO in 1975 to raise Black Angus cattle on the L P Ranch near Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.

From the guide to the G.R. Brainard, Jr. papers, 1929-1976, 1961-1976, (University of Wyoming. American Heritage Center.)