The Anderson-Prichard Oil Corporation was originally founded in 1919 in Oklahoma, and played a major role in the petroleum industry for over the next five decades. After successful initial discoveries in Oklahoma, Texas, and Louisiana, the firm grew rapidly, establishing a large facility in Cyril, Oklahoma. The company went public in 1947 and acquired Kanotex Refining in 1953. By 1955, the company was listed as a Fortune 500 company. In 1960, the company’s assets were liquidated for $123.3 million. The assets were sold to four different entities, including Occidental and Seagram. One part which included Anderson-Prichard marketing and distribution units was incorporated in Delaware as a completely new company, named “APCO Oil Corporation”. The family-owned company ended in 1960, and APCO was a completely different company.

In 1945, co-founder Lev H. Prichard bought out his partner and took Anderson-Prichard public in 1946. Diagnosed with cancer, he moved from the role of president to chairman, bringing in Roland V. Rodman as president. After Prichard’s death in 1949, his son Lev Prichard Jr. was elected to the board but served only a few months before his untimely death in an airplane accident in 1950. At that point, Prichard’s widow, Louise Melton Prichard, joined the board, where she provided leadership until the sale of the company’s assets in 1960.

Through her philanthropy, Louise left a lasting mark on Oklahoma. The chapel at First Baptist Church, Oklahoma City—site of countless weddings and funerals—bears her name; and she left her estate to Oklahoma Baptist University, the largest gift in the school’s history, to establish a permanent endowment to benefit ministerial students.

That legacy lives on today through the philanthropic efforts of Prichard family descendants.