W.A. "Tex" Moncrief Jr.
Fort Worth oilman and philanthropist W.A. “Tex” Moncrief Jr. died on Wednesday morning.
He was 101.
Moncrief’s net worth was believed to be near $1 billion, accumulated through an oil empire he built with his father beginning in the early 1930s, and he shared it generously, through his own charitable giving and the foundation he served as president, left behind by his mother and father, W.A. “Monty” Moncrief, who died in 1986.
TCU and the University of Texas have been favorite beneficiaries, but educational, health, civic, and cultural organizations across the city and state were recipients.
In 2015, the UT Southwestern Monty and Tex Moncrief Medical Center at Fort Worth was established after receiving a $25 million donation from Tex Moncrief, marking the first UT System named campus outside of Dallas.
“W.A. ‘Tex’ Moncrief was passionate in wanting to serve the health care needs of Fort Worth and communities throughout North Texas,” said Dr. Daniel K. Podolsky, President of UT Southwestern Medical Center. “There was never an individual more decisive in pursuing his passion. His vision and remarkable generosity — always in honor of his admired father — have enabled UT Southwestern to serve legions of those in need.
“In planning the Moncrief Cancer Institute and the UT Southwestern Monty and Tex Moncrief Medical Center at Fort Worth, he was determined that they provide an environment that was not only a source of medical expertise, but also lifted the spirits of those in need of help. Tex Moncrief leaves an indelible imprint on North Texas through his generosity of spirit.”
At the time of the donation, Moncrief mentioned his father prominently, saying, “My Dad would be pleased that the Moncrief Radiation Center that he created in Fort Worth years ago has now evolved into UT Southwestern’s plan for a major clinic in Fort Worth to help take care of the medical needs of the citizens of Fort Worth and North Texas.”
UT Southwestern is known worldwide as a premier academic medical center that is fundamentally changing medicine through excellent clinical care, groundbreaking research, and the outstanding education it provides the next generation of physicians and caregivers, he added.
The Moncrief family in total has donated $100 million for the Moncrief Cancer Institute and the Monty and Tex Moncrief Medical Center, UT Southwestern said.
“My condolences and prayers are with the Moncrief family as they mourn the passing of Tex Moncrief," Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker said. "Tex was a giant of a man, a true pioneer in business and philanthropy, and leaves behind a lasting legacy. Fort Worth is fortunate that Tex called our city home and his many accomplishments will to continue to serve us all."
William Alvin Moncrief Jr. was born on March 27, 1920, in Little Rock, Arkansas, the son of William Alvin and Elizabeth Bright Moncrief. Another son, Richard Barto Moncrief was born two years later.
The Moncrief name is synonymous with Texas oil.
His father, who went by Monty Moncrief always, was the last surviving member of the original giants of the East Texas oil fields, which included Columbus Marion “Dad” Joiner, H.L. Hunt, Clint Murchison, and Sid Richardson. Hunt and Murchison moved to Dallas. Moncrief and Richardson, who also struck big in West Texas, moved to Fort Worth.
Decades before there was J.R. Ewing, these four Dallas-Fort Worthians were the symbols of the big oil fortunes of Texas wildcatters.
Monty Moncrief called his initial success in oil luck.
“The only thing my dad ever cautioned me about is not to get greedy,” Tex Moncrief told his father's biographer later. “His theory is that there is always room enough in an oil field for everyone to make some money, and after one has all the money he needs, why worry about getting more?”
Monty Moncrief was vice president in charge of Texas operations for Marland Oil Co. with offices in Fort Worth when management made the decision to centralize its operations in Ponca City, Oklahoma, in 1929.
Moncrief and John E. Farrell struck out on their own, going into the oil business on their own, right as the Great Depression took hold of the country in a firm grip and when oil prices would drop to 10 cents a barrel. After being rebuffed in efforts to drill on a 40-acre hog pasture in Longview, the two struck oil on the so-called Lathrop track in January 1931.
Young Tex Moncrief, then 10, watched as the Lathrop “gusher” in Greggton, 128 miles east of Dallas, shot oil 100 feet into the air, he recalled.
What Monty’s team had found was a 6-billion-barrel East Texas field.
The partners sold to Yount Lee Co. of Beaumont for $2.5 million, in the neighborhood of $45.7 million today. It could have been significantly more. Yount Lee developed the property and sold the entire company to Standard Oil for $37 million.
In 2010, Tex Moncrief hit perhaps his biggest strike with the offshore field “Davy Jones,” which holds up to 6 trillion cubic feet of gas, according to Forbes. Moncrief Offshore owned 10% of the platform and exploration.
Tex Moncrief was born in Little Rock because that’s where his father had been stationed for officers’ training school during World War I. The armistice ending the war was declared just as Monty was to head for the front, according to his biography.
At 14, Tex Moncrief went to Culver Military Academy in Indiana, but, he told Texas Monthly, only reluctantly.
“I had an easy life,” he said. He had an allowance of 50 cents a week, but no chores, aside from caddying for his father occasionally.
After graduation, Moncrief went to Austin to pursue a petroleum engineering degree at UT. While there, he considered quitting school to pursue a pro golf career. His father had other ideas and paid the son a swift visit in the capital. According to Texas Monthly, “Monty roared into Austin, grabbed Tex by the shirt, lifted him off the floor, and explained that he would get an education, even if he had a beard to the ground when he graduated. It was the only time in Tex’s life that he considered not following Monty’s advice.”
Moncrief went on to finish his degree in the Department of Petroleum Engineering at UT, one of the first graduates of the new department, in 1942.
In World War II, Moncrief received a commission in the U.S. Naval Reserve and trained at Harvard as a communications officer. He was in the Pacific as part of the American plan to invade Japan when the Japanese surrendered in 1945.
He returned to Fort Worth and joined his father at Moncrief Oil, by then established as a major player in the industry as an independent. He went on to work side-by-side with his father in same office for more than 40 years. By the late 1940s, however, he was making his own deals for the company.
