The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 106, July 2002 - April, 2003 Page: 229

A BREED SO RARE
THE LIFE OF J. R. PARTEN, LIBERAL TEXAS OIL MAN,
1896-1992
By Don E. Carleton
In A Breed So Rare, Don E. Carleton, director of the Center
for American History at UT Austin, tells the fascinating story of
the life ofJ. R. Parten, a quiet gentleman, a man of honor, a
successful entrepreneur, and a player in state and national poli-
tics who counted numerous bigger-than-life characters as col-
leagues and friends: Huey Long, Sam Rayburn, John Henry
Faulk, Lyndon B.Johnson, and Harry Truman, among others.
Following WWI, in which he served as the youngest major in
the artillery, Parten entered the oil business, establishing enter-
prises that earned millions of dollars and employed thousands
of people. From 1935 to 1941, he served on the University of
Texas Board of Regents, where he -
not only greatly increased the uni-
versity's oil income, but also fought
for academic excellence and free-
dom of speech. During WWII,
Parten was a dominant figure in
the development of the "Big Inch"
and "Little Inch" pipelines, which
provided critical fuel for the Allied
war effort. In 1945, he was chief of
staff for the U.S. delegation to the
Allied War Reparations L
Commission in Moscow, and later
participated in the Potsdam
Conference in Berlin. In the 1950s he worked to counter
threats to civil liberties during the red scare. As a generous phil-
anthropist and political activist, Parten supported world peace
and opposed nuclear weapons and the Vietnam war. Parten was
a quiet, behind-the-scenes doer, yet as a man who stood firmly
behind his beliefs he was one who made a real difference.
ISBN o-87611 -66-5 (cloth). 6 x 9 inches, 668 pp., illustrations, bibliog-
raphy, index. Cloth, $39.95 Member's price, $33.96
2.306 Sid Richardson Hall * University Station * Austin, Texas 78712
8oo/687-8132 * 512/471-1525 * FAX: 512/471-1551
Orders may also be placed through Texas A&M University Press.