1. Kenneth Stanley "Boots" Adams was an American business executive, University of Kansas booster, and civic philanthropist of Bartlesville, Oklahoma.
36 Facts About Boots Adams
1. 2.
Boots Adams remained in continuous service as the company's chief executive until his retirement in 1964.
3.
Kenneth Stanley Boots Adams was born August 31,1899, in Horton, Kansas.
4.
Boots Adams was the son of John V and Lavella Adams.
5.
Boots Adams's father was an engineer for the Rock Island Railroad.
6.
Boots Adams delivered ice in the neighboring town of Bartlesville.
7.
Boots Adams said he was happy that the work involved heavy lifting because it helped him maintain his physical conditioning which he would need as a college athlete.
8.
Boots Adams enrolled at the University of Kansas in the fall of 1917 and played on the university's football, baseball, and basketball teams.
9.
Boots Adams decided to place academics on hold and accept a position in the Phillips Petroleum Company.
10.
In 1921, Boots Adams helped organize the Phillips 66ers, an amateur basketball team sponsored by the Phillips Petroleum Company.
11.
Boots Adams played that year on the team's inaugural roster.
12.
Boots Adams began working as a warehouse clerk in 1920, and ascended to become the company's president.
13.
Boots Adams was one of the youngest ever to lead a major corporation in the United States.
14.
Boots Adams was promoted despite opposition from executive staff, who considered Boots and Phillips to be an odd team.
15.
Boots Adams personally recruited Joe Fortenberry and Jack Ragland; both of them were Olympians from 1936.
16.
Boots Adams teamed them with Chuck Hyatt, Tom Pickell, Jay Wallenstrom, and Bud Browning.
17.
Boots Adams, "the fast-talking young man from Kansas with the big ideas, [to] be elected as the new president of Phillips Petroleum Company".
18.
Boots Adams wanted to diversify the company into emerging oil-related industries.
19.
Boots Adams supported a start-up venture called Pace Setter as well.
20.
Boots Adams purchased a Pace Setter home and advocated for the concept.
21.
Boots Adams knew of the existing profit potential as the use of natural gas increased.
22.
Boots Adams advocated that research and technical expertise was needed for companies to compete in the emerging technological society.
23.
Boots Adams tasked Graves to evaluate an oil formation known locally as the Mississippi Chat.
24.
Boots Adams noticed the growth of companies like DuPont and Dow, who were doing well based on the economic value of patents.
25.
In particular, Boots Adams wanted Phillips to be involved in developing synthetic rubber.
26.
Boots Adams was concerned because two processes showed an equal potential to emerge as the preferred manner of production.
27.
Boots Adams was hopeful that rubber would come to be polymerized by petrochemical means.
28.
Boots Adams joined the consortium, dedicating the resources of Phillips Petroleum Company to the effort dubbed GR-S.
29.
In 1948, Boots Adams began spinning off assets from Phillips' diversification.
30.
Boots Adams formed subsidiaries while retaining a controlling interest in the company and a share of any profits realized.
31.
In 1949, Boots Adams decided to consolidate the company's in house operations under one roof.
32.
Boots Adams wanted the company's research laboratories to be fully modernized, to support the profits being generated from research and development.
33.
Boots Adams contracted the architectural firm of Neville and Sharp of Kansas City, Missouri to build a 12-story, 457,000 square feet multipurpose headquarters.
34.
Boots Adams retired from his position as company president in 1964, after 44 years with the company.
35.
Boots Adams was arguably the single man with "the most to lose" if GR-S had failed.
36.
Boots Adams died March 30,1975, in Bartlesville, Oklahoma and is buried at Bartlesville's Memorial Park Cemetery.