Four new members will be added to the Petroleum Hall of Fame Thursday at Bush Convention Center in Midland. W.E. Connell, Jack D. Hightower, Autry C. Stephens and Peggy C. Worthington were selected by the board of the Permian Basin Petroleum Museum. Since Frank T. Pickrell of El Paso was first inducted in 1968, there have been 156 men and women added.
A native of Bell County, Connell (1858-1936) was a pioneer in the banking and petroleum industries, in 1888 he co-founded what became First National Bank of Midland, and among the early oil ventures he supported was the first well drilled in Ector County in 1926. A native of Odessa, Hightower started work in west Texas oil fields as a teenager, he led such successful ventures as Titan Exploration, Pure Resources and HighPeak Energy, and he played a pivotal role in advancing directional and horizontal drilling technologies.
A native of Comanche County, Stephens (1938-2024) worked for several major oil companies, then in 1979 he established what became Endeavor Energy Resources. It became one of the largest private oil and gas companies in the Permian Basin – drilling thousands of wells across west Texas. An advocate for women in the petroleum sector, Worthington (1952-2019) was vice president of land and business development at Bold Energy, and in 2013 was named AAPL Landman of the Year.