Several times each year–his packed schedule permitting–Robert C. Gunness Sr. would indulge in one of his great passions and head to the Peach State, where he was a member of the Augusta National Golf Club.
“I think that he missed his age by one stroke when he was in his 70s,” recalled one of his sons, Donald.
Besides golfing in Georgia, Mr. Gunness had other formidable talents.
As the holder of several directorships, he knew a thing or two about how to run an oil company and help steer other corporations, his son said.
Mr. Gunness, 92, a former president of the Standard Oil Co. of Indiana, who lived in Chicago for 37 years, died Wednesday, Jan. 28, of natural causes at an assisted-living facility in Fullerton, Calif.
In a career spanning several decades, he rose to hold senior executive positions at Standard Oil, which later became Amoco and now is part of British Petroleum.
He was the company’s executive vice president from 1956 to 1965; president from 1965 to 1974; vice chairman from 1974 to 1975; and a director from 1953 to 1975. He became a director while in his early 40s.
Mr. Gunness also served as a Harris Bank director and a board member at Rush University Medical Center, formerly Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center.
He also was a life trustee at the University of Chicago and a life member of the corporation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In 1951, he served as vice chairman of the research and development board for the Defense Department.
Mr. Gunness, meanwhile, maintained a keen sense of humor marked by an infectious laugh, his son said.
Born in Fargo, N.D., Mr. Gunness moved with his parents to Amherst, Mass., when he was 3. His father had accepted a professorship in the agricultural engineering department at Massachusetts Agricultural College, which later became the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.
In 1932, Mr. Gunness earned a bachelor’s in chemistry from the same school. Mr. Gunness would complete a master’s and a doctorate in chemical engineering in 1934 and 1936, respectively, his family said. Between 1936 and 1938, he taught chemical engineering as an assistant professor at MIT.
Mr. Gunness and his wife, Beverly, moved to Chicago in 1938 when he joined Standard Oil.
“I think Chicago was very significant for him,” his son said. “Chicago was clearly where he invested a tremendous amount of his interests.”
Other survivors include his wife; another son, Robert Jr.; a daughter, Anne Reese; a sister, Marion Snuggs; 10 grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren.
Services have been held.
