Ray Lofton Dudley: Oil industry’s visionary editor and publisher
Teaching and newspaper reporting were the ideal preparation for Ray Lofton Dudley to become the fledgling oil and gas industry’s leading editor and publisher. Mr. Dudley was a passionate advocate for conservation when gushers ruled the day and, as a director of the American Petroleum Institute, he helped lead the campaign for standardization of oilfield equipment. His belief in specialization led Gulf Publishing Company to develop separate publications for specific segments of the industry.
Teacher and newspaperman. Born in Stoverville in Denton County, Texas, on Aug. 8, 1891, Mr. Dudley attended Lewisville Academy, Denton High School, and North Texas State Teachers College (now the University of North Texas). After teaching in a rural school for three years, he attended Baylor University, but did not stay to receive a degree.
Upon leaving college, Mr. Dudley took a job as a cub reporter for a newspaper in Dallas, but was fired at the end of the week. Through his life’s work, however, he proved the unnamed editor quite wrong. After news reporting jobs in Marshall, El Paso, and Fort Worth, Mr. Dudley moved to Houston to become the oil editor of the Houston Post.
Entering the oil publishing business. With encouragement and financial support from industry leaders, such as Texas Governor Ross Sterling (in office 1931–1933), president of Humble Oil Co., and Howard R. Hughes, Sr., inventor of the roller-cone bit, Ray Dudley joined Joe Cathriner, manager of the Houston Stock Exchange, in forming Gulf Publishing Company in 1916.
Gulf Publishing Company purchased the Gulf Coast Oil News for $4,000. For an initial period, a private phone line and an efficient secretary helped Mr. Dudley manage the dual responsibilities of remaining as the Houston Post’s Oil editor, as well as becoming the new editor the Gulf Coast Oil News.
Reviving Houston Dispatch. In 1922, Governor Sterling invested $20,000 in a start-up daily newspaper, Houston Dispatch. Gov. Sterling asked Mr. Dudley and Dale Rogers to take over the Dispatch, as the current managers had difficulty in generating sufficient revenues, even to meet the payroll. “I’ve got pretty deep in this newspaper. I don’t know just what to do with it,” Sterling told Dudley and Rogers, as recounted by Ed Kilman in a manuscript of Governor Sterling’s biography. “I wish you boys would check up and figure how much more it would take to make the Dispatch self-sustaining.”
Under Mr. Dudley’s management, the Dispatch rapidly grew in financial strength to the detriment of the Houston Post. In 1924, Gov. Sterling bought the Post for $1 million, and Mr. Dudley took charge of moving Dispatch employees and equipment to the Post building, while the lawyers were still meeting to discuss possible anti-trust issues. Mr. Dudley was named V.P. and general manager of the Houston Post-Dispatch. Gov. Sterling appointed William Hobby, a former Texas governor, as president.
Launching KPRC radio. In 1924, at the urging of his son, who passed away prematurely, Gov. Sterling had purchased radio transmission equipment for $20,000. The equipment was still in crates as the Post-Dispatch merger got underway. Mr. Dudley thought that radio was an expensive luxury. Fearing that the radio station would eat into newspaper profits, he stalled the governor, hoping he would forget about it. On the contrary, feeling that the radio station would be a fitting memorial for his son, Gov. Sterling gave Mr. Dudley an ultimatum: “I’ll give you three weeks to have the radio set up and operating.”
Mr. Dudley had a hole cut into the roof of the Post-Dispatch printing plant for the radio tower and installed the studio and transmission equipment in a penthouse. On May 9, 1925, exactly 21 days after the allotted grace period, Houston’s first radio station, KPRC (Kotton Port Rail Center), went on the air with a 500-watt signal.
Back full-time to Gulf Publishing. Later in 1925, Mr. Dudley retired from daily newspaper work, and thereafter, devoted full time to his oil publications. An article in Oil Weekly’s “Personal Mention—Men You Know” reports that an announcement of Mr. Dudley’s return was “made to the employees of the company at the time of the distribution of substantial bonus checks at the close of the year, which saw the greatest dividend return to stockholders in the history of the organization.”
Printing, publishing and beyond. Mr. Dudley was chairman of Gulf Printing Company, one of the largest printing firms in the South and Southwest, a director of the American Petroleum Institute and Texas Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association, and one of the founders of NOMADS, an organization of petroleum professionals with international experience.
Mr. Dudley’s passionate advocacy on behalf of the oil and gas industry is evident in some of his early editorials.
Service to the readers. “Our aim is to help,” wrote Editor Dudley, while suggesting that the functions of a trade paper are two-fold. “The trade paper passes along to readers the news of the trade, and it tries to help the trade by the publication of items and articles that will save the readers money.” To support the second role, Dudley asked the readers, “If you’re doing something better than some other oil man, if you have discovered a way to save time and money in finishing some job, let us know.”
Joining the war effort. In the June 23, 1917, issue, Mr. Dudley wrote an editorial titled “Help the Red Cross.” “If you haven’t contributed your part, be it great or small, be square with the boy in the trenches,” wrote Mr. Dudley, “The boys who, within a few months will be sleeping in France with the sky for their covering and the roar of the artillery to lull them to weird dreams.”
Conservation. In a July 14, 1917 issue, Mr. Dudley decried waste in the early oil fields. “A system which figured a deliberate waste from 10% to 15% of its income was very well—maybe—in the days when gushers spouted their streams of $0.50 oil, but now that Gulf Coast crude is nearing $1.50 to $1.90 per barrel, the waste amounts to at least $500,000 in a conservative estimate.”
Personal attention. The “boss” knew all the employees by name. His delight was to play dominoes with the boys in the composing room during the lunch hour.
According to an article in GPC’s Roundup employee newsletter of 1976, no part of GPC escaped Mr. Dudley’s attention. “Once he decided that writing in GPC magazines was becoming too ‘informal,’ mainly because of the use of too many contractions.” Contractions were banned.
“In our publications, we employ two types of editorial men, both of them college graduates,” explained Mr. Dudley in a memo. “We need a limited number of men, who are graduates of Schools of Journalism. The engineers we hire must have had considerable experience with oil companies before we employ them, two years and up is the rule.”
“He was always bubbling over with promotional ideas—many of them scribbled on a tablet or a scrap of paper. He loved to drive away from noisy Houston and go to his quiet Cherry Valley ranch to get a better perspective of company problems,” recalled Bill Sagstetter, corporate advertising director in Gulf Publications’ Roundup employee newsletter. “Perhaps the thing I best remember about him was his integrity. He insisted on absolute truth in a sales pitch, even if it meant loss of business.”
Observations on good management. Mr. Dudley wrote a memo to GPC executives on good management practices. A few excerpts:
When dealing with someone else for your company, remember that the deal should be a two-way street. Nobody ever likes to deal with an individual who always wants to have everything his own way all the time, and all the way.
Don’t assign a job, which you wouldn’t be willing to do yourself.
There is nothing more different than people and nothing more necessary to a boss than to realize that different people require different handling. You don’t have to like a person to work successfully with him, but it helps a lot!
Civic duties. Mr. Dudley’s activities included serving as trustee of Baylor University, board member of both Hermann Hospital and Texas Medical Center, president of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and board member of the Houston Symphony Orchestra. He was one of the founders of the Houston Livestock Show. 
