GPC between 1986 and 2000: Looking to the future

NEW OWNERS

On Jan. 6, 2000, two private investment partners—venture capital firm Battery Ventures and Houston-based investment firm SCF Partners—announced the acquisition of World Oil’s parent company, Gulf Publishing Company (GPC), for $20 million. Prior to the buyout, GPC had been owned by descendants of the company’s late founder, Ray L. Dudley. However, the 50-50 dot-com-era buyout sought to usher in a new dawn for both Gulf Publishing and World Oil—an era which would focus on e-commerce.

While the company’s magazines would continue to be published, the heart of the company was now looking online. As Thomas R. Wright Jr., the then-editorial director, said in announcing the change, “The ability to buy and sell oil field equipment and services over the Internet promises to save time and money. And now, World Oil itself intends to be a leading part of this evolving story.” The aim was to transform World Oil’s website—worldoil.com—into the oil industry’s “leading e-commerce site” by taking the company’s longstanding Composite Catalog digital.

In a statement announcing the buyout, L.E. Simmons, founder of SCF Partners, said, "We know this sector extremely well, and believe the oil field has yet to fully harness the convenience and cost-efficiencies that real-time e-commerce provides. The time is ripe for e-commerce to deliver tremendous value to this market."

Ultimately, the dot-com venture—like many others of that era—proved unsuccessful, and Gulf was sold again the following year (2001)—this time to Euromoney Institutional Investor—for a cash consideration of $10 million. The dot-com owners did, however, sell GPC’s prior home on Allen Parkway before selling the company.

THE END OF AN ERA

Mary Fredrica Gross Dudley, who co-founded Gulf Publishing Company (GPC) with her late husband, Ray L. Dudley, passed away on Sept. 10., 1986, at the age of 92, Fig. 1. She was born on July 14, 1894, in Cedartown, Ga., to Joseph L. Gross and Ella Turner.

Fig. 1. The passing of M. Fredrica Gross Dudley in 1986 marked the end of a major era in Gulf Publishing Company’s history. Image: Roundup, October 1986.

Educated in public schools, Mrs. Dudley pursued her love of learning by earning concurrent degrees from Baylor University (a BA with majors in English and Latin, and a BS degree in music) in Waco, Texas, prior to her marriage.

Her passion for learning was evident in her philanthropy and from her interactions with GPC employees. She once told a GPC department head that they would “never understand the English language without knowing Latin.”

“Freddie” married Ray L. Dudley, her college sweetheart, a year after graduating and, together, the couple had four children, two of whom—Ray Lofton Dudley, Jr. and Bayard Turner Gross Dudley—died during the Second World War.

Mrs. Dudley’s nature is perhaps best summed up by the obituary published in GPC’s in-house newsletter, Roundup, during that period, which contains a moving testimony by Joan Johnson, secretary and Dudley family friend for more than 20 years.

Johnson said: “I wish the younger people in our company could have known Mrs. Dudley. When she was in her prime, she put out more work in one morning than most people would in a whole day. She was filled with energy. She was one of the most brilliant women ever to have graced this city.”

Sadly, the era also saw the passing of William G. Dudley, son of the co-founders, on April 26, 1989, at the age of 63. Dudley, who was then serving as chairman of the board and president of GPC, died in his sleep at his Houston home. Dudley, who was known to show up to the office in a safari suit, led the company for 32 years.

His legacy was sealed in a moving tribute in the office newsletter. “What I will miss most about this kind, encouraging and generous man is his sincerity that he so effectively transferred to each and every one of us.”

Dudley was succeeded at the helm by Robert M. de Sombre, who had joined GPC in 1950 before being named V.P. and assistant general manager in 1956. In 1968, he was named senior V.P. and managed all publishing functions for the company’s magazines and the then-book division.

In 1991, de Sombre passed away and was succeeded as president and CEO by Ray Dudley Cashman, grandson of the company’s co-founders, on Nov. 1. However, on Nov. 7, 1994, Cashman passed away unexpectedly at the age of 49. And while his tenure may have been short, his legacy, as recorded by the company’s in-house magazine, was considerable: “In three short years, he earned and gained the respect and loyalty of the Gulf Publishing employees, the people whose interests he always put first.”

Robert W. Scott, V.P. and editorial director, took the helm after Cashman. Scott joined GPC in 1958 as World Oil’s engineering editor, and in 1967 he was promoted to editor. He was succeeded by John D. “Rusty” Meador in 1997. Scott carried on, however, as the company’s chairman until March 1998 when, after 40 years of service, he retired.