Robert A. Hefner Jr.


Robert A. Hefner Jr. was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1973. He was born on June 2, 1907 to Eva & Robert A. Hefner in Beaumont, Texas. Only a few short months later, the Hefner family decided to move to Ardmore, Oklahoma, where Junior would spend the majority of his childhood. Junior, a driven man himself, grew up in Carter County, which produced many legendary oil men: Wirt Franklin, Lloyd Noble, Jake L. Hamon, Edwin L. Cox, Frank W. Merrick and his son Ward S. Merrick, Charles B. Goddard, Leon Daube, Max Westheimer, and Walter Neustadt Sr. and Jr.

Early childhood

Hefner was a competitor in all of his endeavors. Since age five, he studied the violin with noted Ardmore teacher Sol Lowenstein and would end up winning the gold medal for the State of Oklahoma. It was because of his passion for the violin that he decided to take up a more manly endeavor, boxing. Hefner joked "Any boy who plays the violin has to learn to protect himself". He wasn't just an athlete either, he consistently kept in the top 5% of his class scholastically.

Boy Scouts of America

In 1918, at 11 years old, Hefner became an active participant in the Boy Scouts of America. From the end of 1918 through the first of 1920, Bob had already risen through the ranks and claimed the title of Life Scout, the highest merit offered to any scout by the Ardmore Council at that time. In the summer of 1920, it was announced in the Daily Ardmoreite that Bob and James Dolman would attend the first International Jubilee in London, England. The USS Pocahantas, a warship furnished free of cost by the United States government to take them across to England, set sail July 6, 1920. Bob, the "youngest and smallest" American scout, won a gold medal for his weight class in boxing and was presented a gold medal by the King of England himself. Hefner would eventually go on to attain his Eagle Scout ranking.

The Culver years

Influenced by Brigadier General L. R. Gignilliat, a man he met while in at the Jubilee in England, Bob told his parents of his desire to attend Culver Military Academies in Indiana. In 1922, Bob made the move. While at Culver, Bob was loyal to his parents back in Ardmore in writing them a letter every Sunday evening. Bob immediately joined Culver's famed Black Horse Troop, which had been formed in 1906 and which had gained such a reputation that it had ridden in the inaugural parade in Washington, DC in 1912 as the personal escort of the Vice President Thomas R. Marshall. For his "aptitude in military instruction" he was awarded the Cross Sabres and the Silver Lozenge, honors given for excellence.
His second year, 1922–1923, Bob earned his letter in basketball, track, ice hockey, and boxing, winning the title of champion in boxing Featherweight category for the 2nd division. Bob also ended up serving as a corporal in the Black Horse Troop, which was the highest rank he could attain as a second year student. During this year, Bob entered the Amateur Athletic Union Tournament to reach the championship finals in his weight class in the three-state area. Bob was also awarded the Cross Sabres and the Silver Lozenge, honors given for excellence.

College years

In 1924, Hefner decided to attend Stanford University. He kept up his passions for golf, boxing, and the violin through his life. While at Stanford, his sparring partner was Fidel Labarba, a Cuban who went on to an undefeated professional career as a featherweight. Hefner pledged Delta Upsilon in 1925 while at Stanford and played the violin in the San Francisco Symphony.
However, when Hefner returned home for the summer of 1926, he learned of his father's bid for justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court for the Fifth Judicial District. Very quickly, all of the Judge's family members became involved in the political race. When September came and it was time to go back to California, Hefner instead enrolled at the University of Oklahoma in order to stay home and support his father.
The next year, Hefner returned to Stanford for what would be his first year of law school while it was also his last year of undergraduate study. At that time students normally were admitted to law school after only two years of undergraduate work, then did three years of law study to graduate with a bachelor of laws degree. In the fall of 1927, he received his undergraduate degree summa cum laude from Stanford University.

Law degree

Prior to graduation from Stanford, Bob had discussed his law school education at length with his father, a lawyer himself, and both decided it would be wise to spend the second year in the Northeast. Thus, Bob enrolled at Harvard University in the fall of 1928. In his first year, Bob was selected to the Harvard Law Review, an honor almost unheard of for a second-year student who had not taken his first years work at Harvard. Then, in the fall of 1929, Bob decided to complete his degree at the University of Oklahoma's Law School. He finished at the top of his class and finished fourth in what would be the first graduating law class from the University of Oklahoma that was required to take the State Bar Exam in June 1930.

Tri-state area, Washington DC, and the Hefner Company

Upon graduation, the Judge told Bob he would pay for him and one person of his choice to travel the world as part of his last piece of education and Bob chose his sister Evelyn. They traveled West around the world starting with Hawaii. On their way to Hawaii, they made good friends with another couple on the boat, Nelson Rockefeller and his bride travelling on their honeymoon. They then travelled to Kobe, Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Manila, Singapore, Java, Surabaja, Burma, Rangoon, Calcutta, Darjeeling, Agra, Port Said, Cairo, and Marseille before returning home through New York.
Fresh off his trip from around the world, Bob formed a partnership with Chief Justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court Charles W. Mason to begin his law practice on the 12th floor of the Petroleum Building in Oklahoma City. His first case, brought to him intentionally by his father, was an Indian case of half-bloods which he lost. As Bob recounted, "Now I know why you didn't go over there". In 1933, Bob severed the partnership with the Chief Justice to become assistant to Stanley Foreman Reed, the General Counsel for the Reconstruction Finance Corporation.
In Washington, Bob quickly was introduced to society by Pearl Mesta and ended up running into an old friend, Elliott Roosevelt. Bob had met Elliott Roosevelt at a brunch he was hosting while in Dallas, Texas, a few years before and introduced him to Ruth Josephine Googins who eventually married on July 22, 1933. Following this, Bob became great friend with the Roosevelts and frequented the White House for dinners.
On the evening of March 27, 1935, while at dinner in the White House with the Roosevelts, Louise Currie Gunter, whom Bob married on June 26, 1934, went into labor. The timing was such that ice and snow prevented a hasty retreat to the hospital. The secret service pulled out the snowplows and barely cleared the way, otherwise Robert Hefner III was minutes from being born in the Oval Office.
Less than 3 months later, Bob decided it was time to move on from politics. He moved to the Tri-State Oil Field, known as the area where Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky adjoin, to begin his oil & gas law practice. He took all three states' bar examinations and passed them with top grades and quickly made a name for himself in the area. He would frequently travel to Malibu, California, for golf with friends and once Louis and Bob filed for divorce on December 6, 1939.
Bob then married Waite Phillip's daughter, Helen Jane, on July 16, 1940. The two had dated years before and grew up together in Ardmore. For their wedding gift, Mr. Phillips gave Robert the deeds to the Philmont Ranch, a ranch in New Mexico, along with Philcade and Philtower, the two most notable business buildings in Tulsa. Unfortunately, they soon realized they had been correct years before in not giving into their family's wishes of marrying. On August 27, 1941 Bob and Helen filed for divorce. Bob even went back to Mr. Phillips and offered the wedding gifts back to him, an offer that he refused. So, they both agreed that Bob would donate the properties to the Boy Scouts of America, the largest single donation in the history of Scouting.
The rest of his life was spent working for the Hefner Company after his father convinced him to move back to Oklahoma in September 1946. He married Elinor Hope Hartmetz of a prominent family in Evansville on March 16, 1945, and because of wartime travel restrictions, their honeymoon was in St. Louis. He remained with Elinor the remainder of his life.

Additional references