Algur H. Meadows
Encyclopedia
Algur Hurtle Meadows, was an oilman, art collector, and benefactor of Southern Methodist University
and other institutions.
, Georgia
, the third of seven children of John Morgan
and Sally Marie Elora (Dailey) Meadows. After receiving his diploma from Vidalia Collegiate Institute in 1915, he studied at Georgia and Alabama Business College and Mercer University
, both in Macon
, Georgia
. Meadows subsequently left Mercer
to travel around the South with a friend, during which journey he held a variety of jobs. He first manifested his business acumen in his accounting work for Standard Oil Company in Shreveport, Louisiana
, from 1921 to 1929. During this period he earned a law degree from Centenary College
and was admitted to the Louisiana
state bar, in 1926. On December 11, 1922, he married Virginia Stuart Garrison, with whom he had one son.
In the fall of 1928 Meadows and a friend, Ralph G. Trippett, founded a loan company, the General Finance Company, which became the General American Finance System in 1930. In the summer of 1936 Meadows and Trippett united with J. W. Gilliland, a petroleum expert, to form the General American Oil Company, the headquarters of which were moved from Shreveport to Dallas in 1937. The new company experienced a phenomenal expansion in operations, due to an ingenious method of acquiring oil-producing properties that Meadows developed. The scheme, which Meadows dubbed the "ABC plan," involved three parties in the purchase transaction to minimize tax liability and the use of interest-bearing oil payments to meet a large percentage of the purchase price. Meadows became the president and major stockholder of the General American Oil Company in 1941 and was elected chairman of the board in 1950. By 1959 his company had acquired 2,990 oil wells in fifteen states and Canada
and was drilling for oil in Spain
.
On business trips to Madrid
in the 1950s, Meadows visited the Prado museum, which inspired an interest in Spanish old masters. He began acquiring paintings attributed to artists such as El Greco
and Goya. Following the death of his wife in 1961, he donated his collection and a million-dollar endowment to Southern Methodist University
in order to establish a museum of Spanish art in her memory. He subsequently donated a collection of contemporary Italian sculpture to SMU
in order to found an outdoor sculpture garden in honor of his second wife, Elizabeth Boggs Bartholow, whom he married in 1962. In recognition of Meadows's multiple gifts, exceeding $34 million, the SMU
trustees named the university's school of arts in his honor in 1969, Meadows School of the Arts
.
In 1964 Meadows, with the encouragement of his second wife, began collecting paintings by French Impressionists and post-Impressionists. Three years later, in a widely-publicized discovery, he learned that thirty-eight of the fifty-eight works in his private collection were forgeries and that many of the earlier works in the Meadows Museum
collection were falsely attributed. With characteristic generosity, Meadows immediately gave the museum a million dollars to replace the questionable works and began rebuilding his private collection, much of which was donated to the Dallas Museum of Art
after his death.
Meadows generously benefitted programs throughout Texas
in health, education, visual arts, and social services, under the auspices of the Meadows Foundation, which he and his first wife established in 1948. He was on the board of directors of Republic National Bank of Dallas, a trustee of SMU
, and on the board of directors at St. Mark's School
, Presbyterian Hospital
, Children's Medical Center, Hope Cottage, and the Wadley Research Center. Meadows was a Presbyterian, a Mason
, and a member of numerous professional, civic, and social organizations, including the American Petroleum Institute
, Independent Petroleum Association, Dallas Petroleum Club, Dallas Art Association, Dallas Citizens Council, and Sigma Nu
fraternity. He received an honorary doctor of humane letters degree from SMU in 1965 and an honorary doctor of laws degree from Centenary College
in 1969. He was killed in an auto accident on June 10, 1978, and was entombed at Hillcrest Mausoleum. His legacy of generosity to the public lives on in the Meadows Museum
at SMU, now considered to be the finest collection of Spanish art outside of Spain
, and through the beneficence of the Meadows Foundation, which by the end of 1992 had donated more than $200 million to charitable organizations in Texas
.
Southern Methodist University
Southern Methodist University is a private university in Dallas, Texas, United States. Founded in 1911 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, SMU operates campuses in Dallas, Plano, and Taos, New Mexico. SMU is owned by the South Central Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church...
and other institutions.
Life
Meadows was born on April 24, 1899, in VidaliaVidalia
Vidalia is a genus of tephritid or fruit flies in the family Tephritidae....
, Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
, the third of seven children of John Morgan
John Morgan
-Arts and entertainment:*John Morgan , British painter*John Morgan , Welsh clergyman, scholar and poet*John Morgan , American broadcaster and television producer...
and Sally Marie Elora (Dailey) Meadows. After receiving his diploma from Vidalia Collegiate Institute in 1915, he studied at Georgia and Alabama Business College and Mercer University
Mercer University
Mercer University is an independent, private, coeducational university with a Baptist heritage located in the U.S. state of Georgia. Mercer is the only university of its size in the United States that offers programs in eleven diversified fields of study: liberal arts, business, education, music,...
, both in Macon
Macon, Georgia
Macon is a city located in central Georgia, US. Founded at the fall line of the Ocmulgee River, it is part of the Macon metropolitan area, and the county seat of Bibb County. A small portion of the city extends into Jones County. Macon is the biggest city in central Georgia...
, Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
. Meadows subsequently left Mercer
Mercer University
Mercer University is an independent, private, coeducational university with a Baptist heritage located in the U.S. state of Georgia. Mercer is the only university of its size in the United States that offers programs in eleven diversified fields of study: liberal arts, business, education, music,...
to travel around the South with a friend, during which journey he held a variety of jobs. He first manifested his business acumen in his accounting work for Standard Oil Company in Shreveport, Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
, from 1921 to 1929. During this period he earned a law degree from Centenary College
Centenary College of Louisiana
Centenary College of Louisiana is a primarily undergraduate, liberal arts and sciences college in Shreveport, Louisiana. The college is one of the founding members of the Associated Colleges of the South, a pedagogical organization consisting of sixteen Southern liberal arts colleges...
and was admitted to the Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
state bar, in 1926. On December 11, 1922, he married Virginia Stuart Garrison, with whom he had one son.
In the fall of 1928 Meadows and a friend, Ralph G. Trippett, founded a loan company, the General Finance Company, which became the General American Finance System in 1930. In the summer of 1936 Meadows and Trippett united with J. W. Gilliland, a petroleum expert, to form the General American Oil Company, the headquarters of which were moved from Shreveport to Dallas in 1937. The new company experienced a phenomenal expansion in operations, due to an ingenious method of acquiring oil-producing properties that Meadows developed. The scheme, which Meadows dubbed the "ABC plan," involved three parties in the purchase transaction to minimize tax liability and the use of interest-bearing oil payments to meet a large percentage of the purchase price. Meadows became the president and major stockholder of the General American Oil Company in 1941 and was elected chairman of the board in 1950. By 1959 his company had acquired 2,990 oil wells in fifteen states and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and was drilling for oil in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
.
On business trips to Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
in the 1950s, Meadows visited the Prado museum, which inspired an interest in Spanish old masters. He began acquiring paintings attributed to artists such as El Greco
El Greco
El Greco was a painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El Greco" was a nickname, a reference to his ethnic Greek origin, and the artist normally signed his paintings with his full birth name in Greek letters, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος .El Greco was born on Crete, which was at...
and Goya. Following the death of his wife in 1961, he donated his collection and a million-dollar endowment to Southern Methodist University
Southern Methodist University
Southern Methodist University is a private university in Dallas, Texas, United States. Founded in 1911 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, SMU operates campuses in Dallas, Plano, and Taos, New Mexico. SMU is owned by the South Central Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church...
in order to establish a museum of Spanish art in her memory. He subsequently donated a collection of contemporary Italian sculpture to SMU
SMU
SMU may stand for:*Southern Methodist University in University Park, Texas, USA**SMU Mustangs, the athletic program of the above school*St. Martin's University in Lacey, Washington, USA*Saint Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada...
in order to found an outdoor sculpture garden in honor of his second wife, Elizabeth Boggs Bartholow, whom he married in 1962. In recognition of Meadows's multiple gifts, exceeding $34 million, the SMU
SMU
SMU may stand for:*Southern Methodist University in University Park, Texas, USA**SMU Mustangs, the athletic program of the above school*St. Martin's University in Lacey, Washington, USA*Saint Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada...
trustees named the university's school of arts in his honor in 1969, Meadows School of the Arts
Meadows School of the Arts
The Meadows School of the Arts is an art institute in Southern Methodist University, University Park, Texas, USA. It is known for its professional music, dance, theatre, art, art history, arts administration, and advertising programs, as well as its cinema, journalism, media, and public relations...
.
In 1964 Meadows, with the encouragement of his second wife, began collecting paintings by French Impressionists and post-Impressionists. Three years later, in a widely-publicized discovery, he learned that thirty-eight of the fifty-eight works in his private collection were forgeries and that many of the earlier works in the Meadows Museum
Meadows Museum
The Meadows Museum is a museum in Dallas, USA. A division of the Southern Methodist University Meadows School of the Arts, houses one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of Spanish art outside of Spain, with works dating from the 10th to the 20th century...
collection were falsely attributed. With characteristic generosity, Meadows immediately gave the museum a million dollars to replace the questionable works and began rebuilding his private collection, much of which was donated to the Dallas Museum of Art
Dallas Museum of Art
The Dallas Museum of Art is a major art museum located in the Arts District of downtown Dallas, Texas, USA, along Woodall Rodgers Freeway between St. Paul and Harwood. In 1984, the museum moved from its previous location in Fair Park to the Arts District, Dallas, Texas...
after his death.
Meadows generously benefitted programs throughout Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
in health, education, visual arts, and social services, under the auspices of the Meadows Foundation, which he and his first wife established in 1948. He was on the board of directors of Republic National Bank of Dallas, a trustee of SMU
Southern Methodist University
Southern Methodist University is a private university in Dallas, Texas, United States. Founded in 1911 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, SMU operates campuses in Dallas, Plano, and Taos, New Mexico. SMU is owned by the South Central Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church...
, and on the board of directors at St. Mark's School
St. Mark's School
St. Mark’s School is a coeducational, Episcopal, preparatory school, situated on in Southborough, Massachusetts, from Boston. It was founded in 1865 as an all-boys' school by Joseph Burnett, a wealthy native of Southborough who developed and marketed the world-famous Burnett Vanilla Extract . ...
, Presbyterian Hospital
Presbyterian Hospital
Presbyterian Hospital may refer to:* New York-Presbyterian Hospital, a hospital in New York City* Presbyterian Hospital , a hospital in Charlotte, North Carolina* Presbyterian Hospital , a hospital in Albuquerque, New Mexico...
, Children's Medical Center, Hope Cottage, and the Wadley Research Center. Meadows was a Presbyterian, a Mason
Freemasonry
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...
, and a member of numerous professional, civic, and social organizations, including the American Petroleum Institute
American Petroleum Institute
The American Petroleum Institute, commonly referred to as API, is the largest U.S trade association for the oil and natural gas industry...
, Independent Petroleum Association, Dallas Petroleum Club, Dallas Art Association, Dallas Citizens Council, and Sigma Nu
Sigma Nu
Sigma Nu is an undergraduate, college fraternity with chapters in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Sigma Nu was founded in 1869 by three cadets at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia...
fraternity. He received an honorary doctor of humane letters degree from SMU in 1965 and an honorary doctor of laws degree from Centenary College
Centenary College of Louisiana
Centenary College of Louisiana is a primarily undergraduate, liberal arts and sciences college in Shreveport, Louisiana. The college is one of the founding members of the Associated Colleges of the South, a pedagogical organization consisting of sixteen Southern liberal arts colleges...
in 1969. He was killed in an auto accident on June 10, 1978, and was entombed at Hillcrest Mausoleum. His legacy of generosity to the public lives on in the Meadows Museum
Meadows Museum
The Meadows Museum is a museum in Dallas, USA. A division of the Southern Methodist University Meadows School of the Arts, houses one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of Spanish art outside of Spain, with works dating from the 10th to the 20th century...
at SMU, now considered to be the finest collection of Spanish art outside of Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, and through the beneficence of the Meadows Foundation, which by the end of 1992 had donated more than $200 million to charitable organizations in Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
.