Jack Crichton
| John Alston "Jack" Crichton | |
|---|---|
| Born |
October 16, 1916 Crichton Red River Parish Louisiana USA |
| Died | December 10, 2007 (aged 91) Dallas, Texas |
| Cause of death | Cancer |
| Residence | Dallas, Texas |
| Alma mater |
C.E. Byrd High School |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Marilyn Berry Crichton |
| Children |
Catherine C. Morris |
C.E. Byrd High School
Texas A&M University
Catherine C. Morris
John Alston Crichton, known as Jack Crichton (October 16, 1916 – December 10, 2007), was an oil and natural gas industrialist from Dallas, Texas, who was among the first of his ranks to recognize the importance of petroleum reserves in the Middle East. In 1964, he carried the Republican banner in a fruitless campaign against the reelection of Governor John B. Connally, Jr., then a Democrat, who in 1973 switched parties.
In 1990, Crichton (pronounced KREI-tun) wrote in an opinion piece for the Dallas Morning News, stating that he first realized the vastness of the Middle Eastern oil reserves prior to 1950. He and a coworker determined, he said, that the Burgan Field in Kuwait, for example, held ten billion barrels of crude oil. In 1951, he helped to establish San Juan Oil Company in Dallas, where he became the vice president of operations. During the 1950s, he took a group of American businessmen to Yemen to search for oil. During his long career, he was the president of the Yemen Development Corporation and the Dorchester Gas Corporation, Crichton was also involved in the mining of copper, zinc, gold, silver, and nickel through his Arabian Shield Development Company.
Crichton was born on a cotton plantation in the community of Crichton near Coushatta in Red River Parish in northwestern Louisiana. He graduated in 1933 from C.E. Byrd High School in Shreveport and then enrolled at Texas A&M University in College Station. He played tennis, basketball, and ran cross country track. His classmates included future industrialist H.R. "Bum" Bright and Earle Cabell, later a U.S. Representative and a mayor of Dallas. At TAMU, he wrote an award-winning essay, "The Political Career of Huey P. Long". Crichton served TAMU as the president of the Lettermen's Association and chairman of the Development Foundation. He also served on the board of the Association of Former Students from 1965–1968, was the association president in 1967, and in 1983 was named a Distinguished Alumnus. He later obtained a Master of Science degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology of Boston, where he was affiliated with Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.
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