PALO ALTO, Calif. — George Keller, who oversaw the formation of Chevron Corp. in what was then the largest corporate takeover, died Friday. He was 84.
The former chairman and chief executive died of complications from orthopedic surgery, his daughter-in-law Emma Gilbey Keller told The New York Times.
He died in Palo Alto, said Diane McNulty, a spokeswoman for the Times, where Keller's son Bill is executive editor.
As chairman of the Standard Oil Co. of California, Keller executed the company's $13.3 billion takeover of Gulf Oil to form Chevron in 1984. The deal was considered risky at the time.
But in an interview with Fortune magazine a few years later, Keller praised the acquisition as a success. He noted that the deal doubled Chevron's oil reserves, and that much of it was paid for by selling some of Gulf's assets.
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Keller was born in Kansas City, Mo., in 1923. He was fascinated by chemistry and went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, from which he graduated in 1948 after a stint in the military.
At Standard Oil, Keller designed refineries before moving up the corporate ladder and becoming chairman in 1981.
He was known to take risks. At his first board meeting, he approved a $600 million bid for offshore leases that led to the discovery of millions of oil barrels.
In the 1980s, he recommended that the federal government set the price of oil high to encourage drilling, going against the sentiments of many in the industry.
Keller also defended Chevron's decision to do business with a Marxist government in Angola. He said other companies would take Chevron's place if the oil giant left.
