Samuel Lloyd Noble

Samuel Lloyd Noble, known as Lloyd Noble (30 November 1896 in Ardmore, Oklahoma – 14 February 1950 in Houston, Texas), was an oilman and philanthropist, founder of the Noble Corporation and the The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation. He attended Southeastern Normal College in Durant, Oklahoma and the University of Oklahoma. Lloyd After his father died, he enlisted in the U. S. Navy in 1918, and was discharged the following year after the armistice was signed that ended World War I.

Lloyd Noble began his career in the early years of oil drilling in the state, founding the Noble Drilling Company on April 1, 1921. The company began using Hughes Simplex rock bits created by the Hughes Tool Company in the 1920s and was noted for adopting new technologies. With his wealth, Noble founded the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, charged with undertaking philanthropy and advancing agricultural practices and science.

Noble was born in 1896 and raised in a family of hardware merchants, whose store was built in Ardmore, Oklahoma, then a part of the Chickasaw Indian Territory. As a young man, Noble attended college in Durant, Oklahoma, earning a teaching certificate. He taught school, but quit to attend college at the University of Oklahoma. His pursuit of higher education was cut short when he left in order to help his ailing father with the family business.

Noble was known for his interests in and use of aviation, geoscience and other emerging developments of the century.

During World War II, Noble was asked to improve the United Kingdom’s oil production. England needed oil and sent an emissary to request the help of a number of American oil drillers. Noble was willing to risk his rigs and crew in the top secret endeavor to quickly drill multiple wells in a small oil field in Sherwood Forest. The endeavor relied on Noble Drilling’s superior use of technology to drill 106 wells in one year: from March 1943 to March 1944. The production of the field increased from 700 barrels a day to over 3,000 barrels a day. Noble’s company took no profit from the operation. As a manager, Noble was known to reward hard working employees throughout his company by including them in a share of profits for successful wells.

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