the news. But the others must have felt as I did. We waited too long. | got a phone call in 1973. George had died at Mount Sinai Hospital. There was an empty bottle of sleeping pills.
My father’s death came in 1976. Ann and | had got word it was coming a few weeks before. We were there. So was Norris Bramblett, an accountant who had worked for my father since I was in school. My father trusted him. So did I. He had only a fourth grade education, but a PHD’s worth of character and sense. My father, Zeno the Stoic when things got tough, cracked jokes to the end. Norris alone could understand him by then. He translated patiently. My father was giving me one more lesson. He
lapsed into a coma. Ann and I| were called down from our bedroom when he died.
That left me and Lansing Hays co-trustees of the trust controlling his companies. Lansing ran the law firm that handled nearly all my father’s business and little else. It was a big job. Lansing was smart, abrasive, and dead honest. He didn’t mind hurting people’s feelings. | was not immune. It didn’t matter. It wouldn’t have mattered to my father. What mattered was that Lansing knew what trust meant, and
put the Trust first. That’s what I cared about.
Lansing was already on the Getty Oil board. I was invited to join too. We met four times a year, most often in Los Angeles. Harold Berg, an oil engineer from Colorado, had become CEO (chief executive officer) and chairman after George died. Sid Petersen, an accountant, was COO (chief operating officer). Harold was a warmer and more approachable personality. That’s what you'd expect in an oilfield guy. Sid was reserved and analytical. That’s what you might expect from an accountant, although Norris Bramblett fit anything but the stereotype. Harold and Sid were both clearly well chosen. Neither then nor later did I doubt that Getty was run at least as
well as its big oil rivals.
The board too were top people. But trouble was brewing. The trust, meaning Lansing and I, owned about 43% of the shares. The Getty Museum, also chaired by Harold, owned another 11%. Boards and managers prefer scattered ownership, so
that they can operate more freely. Second-best would be concentration in docile
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