Wallace Trevor Holliday

Wallace Trevor Holliday was President of Standard Oil of Ohio, John D. Rockefeller's' first oil company, from 1928 to 1949 and Chairman of the Board from 1949 until his death on November 7, 1950.

Holliday was born in the old Newburgh section of Cleveland, Ohio on March 10, 1884. He was the son of William Wallace Holliday and Mary McDonald Holliday, both of Scottish extraction. His father was a physician in Cleveland for many years. His brother, Clarence was 6 years his junior.

He attended Cleveland South High School, Western Reserve (1901–04) and Cornell (A.B., 1905) Universities, and the Harvard Law School (LL.B., 1908). He held the honorary degree of LL.D. (1947) from Rollins College. The summers of his school years, he worked for the New York Central System Railroad on construction jobs, going up the scale from axman, rodman and topographer to bridge-building inspector.

His first position after leaving Harvard was a nonsalaried spot with the law firm of Kline, Tolles & Goff, attorneys for the Standard Oil interest in the central states. Holliday often took papers to the Forest Hills home of John D. Rockefeller for the millionaire's signature, thus beginning a friendship that continued for 28 years until Rockefeller's death. He became a partner in the law firm Niman, Grossman, Buss & Holliday, which became Holliday, Grossman, & McAfee, the forerunner of McAfee, Grossman, Taplin, Hanning, Newcomer & Hazlett. He was attorney for various oil-producing pipe-line and refining and marketing companies, and in 1917, began serving as general counsel for The Standard Oil Company. He argued a case before the U.S Supreme Court in 1917.

In April, 1928, Holliday became President of Rockefeller's' first oil company. He succeeded Andrew Palmer Coombe, who had retired. Holliday remained in the presidency until April 25, 1949, when he became chairman of the board and was succeeded as president by Clyde T. Foster.

Sohio's sales, declining when he took over the presidency, jumped 150% in his first two years and continued to climb even through the depression. Under his leadership the company pioneered in establishing pre-fabricated enameled steel and glass service stations which replaced their less-appealing predecessors. He also helped in the development of distribution pipe lines for refined gasoline, which reduced retail gasoline costs.

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