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T his collaboration had its genesis in 2007, when Janet Pollard met Bill Krumpack while traveling with a group of Austin opera buffs in Italy.When Janet told Bill that she needed someone to help her organize a book about her father’s life, he mentioned Louis Gwin, a retired associate professor of communications who had considerable experience as a writer. After several telephone conversations and a meeting in Midland that summer, the project was born. This book has benefited from the technical expertise of a number of people.The authors are particularly grateful to Jim Bradshaw,archivist of the Nita Stewart Haley Memorial Library and J. Evetts Haley History Center in Midland, where the papers of both O. W. Williams and Clayton Wheat Williams are housed. Jim spent many hours tracking down letters and other documents that were essential to telling this story. Dennis Trombatore, head librarian of the Walter Geology Library at the University of Texas at Austin, was an invaluable guide to books, periodicals , and other materials documenting the development of the West Texas oil industry and drilling technology. Professor William L. Fisher, the Leonidas T. Barrow Centennial Chair in Mineral Resources in the Department of Geological Sciences at UT–Austin,gave freely of his time to review chapters covering early technological developments in the Texas oil industry. Howard Parker, now retired in Austin after a successful career as a West Texas oilman, provided many interesting details about oil exploration techniques . Debra Whitfield, librarian for the Fort Stockton Public Library, was a wonderful resource for information about the history and growth of Fort Stockton. And while there are many other individuals who contributed to this effort, we would be remiss without thanking the collective staffs of the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at UT–Austin and the Permian Basin Petroleum Museum in Midland for guiding the authors to a number Acknowledgments viii Acknowledgments of important sources of information about the life of Clayton Wheat Williams and the Trans-Pecos region of Texas. Of course, any errors of fact in this book are solely the responsibility of the authors. On a personal note, the authors wish to acknowledge people who encouraged and supported them throughout the work of putting this book together. Louis Gwin thanks his wife Rachel Parker-Gwin, PhD, who read the manuscript several times and contributed her intellectual insights as a sociologist and her considerable proofreading skills, as well as her love and encouragement. For Janet Pollard, this book is the culmination of a promise made to her father more than two decades ago. Bringing the book to fruition was a long and difficult task, and chief among those who supported her dream along the way was her beloved husband Bob,who encouraged her and loved her for forty-eight years; and her strong sons, Scott, Clay, Graham, and Adam, who have helped her and taught her. Thanks also go to their loving wives, Debbie, Jeanne, Chris, and Hollyn, and to Janet’s grandchildren Ashlee, Meredith, Stephanie, Clayton, Mary Claire, Addison, Andy Bob, and Jack. Janet’s grandfather, O. W. (Judgie) Williams, has her gratitude for his dedication to learning and his great sense of adventure, and her grandmother , Sallie Wheat, for the gift of music, which she passed down. Janet’s parents gave her a joyful childhood.Janet is particularly grateful to her father for asking her to write this book and for believing that she could do it. Her brother Claytie deserves mention for all of the wonderful times they have spent together, and his wife Modesta, for loving them all. She thanks her Williams cousins—Mari Helen Schultz, Sara Garnett, David Walker, Harriet Hern, Susan Poole, Ann Kirk, Bill Hamilton, Marsha Williams—and her nieces and nephews—Kelvie Cleverdon, Allyson Groner, Clayton Williams, Jeff Williams, Chim Welborn, and Shelly Pollard Forte—as well as her Graham cousins—Lee Graham, Nancy Graham McSpadden, and Joe Graham—and Dick and Tina Pollard. To her friends who stuck with her—Nancy Beal, Jane Sibley, Barbara Bross, Mary Carney, Pat Black, Peggy Schafer, Mary Rasmussen, Shirley McDonnold, Sharon Floyd, Karen Williamson, Betty Isaac, Carolyn Roden,Billie and Jim Ross,Dulcie Ligon Boykin,Jane Adams Garlitz,Kay Salyer, Dorothy Blackwell, Francis Levine, Lisa DiLeo, and Teresa Lozano Long—the author offers her sincerest love and appreciation. To Frances Stapp, who helped her move 600 boxes of Williams family papers to the Haley Memorial Library and History Center in one...

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