Biographical Information
An independent oil and natural gas man, Williams was the son of Clayton W. Williams, Sr., a Pecos county commissioner, and the former Chicora Lee Graham, known as "Chic" Williams.
Clayton, Jr., also known as "Claytie", was born in Alpine in the Big Bend country of far West Texas, but reared in his father's native Fort Stockton, the seat of geographically large Pecos County. He graduated from Texas A&M University in College Station in 1954 with a degree in animal husbandry and then, as had his father during World War I, served in the U.S. Army.
In 1957, Williams followed in the business of his father, beginning in the oil fields of West Texas as a lease broker. Many of his companies were petroleum-related with interests in the exploration and production of natural gas and transportation and extraction of natural gas and natural gas liquids. In 1993, he took Clayton Williams Energy, Inc. public.
Williams also diversified into the more traditional businesses of farming, ranching, real estate, and banking. He also tried his hand at long distance telecommunications. For a time he operated a long distance company, ClayDesta, named for both himself and his wife, Modesta. Williams also taught for six years in the Texas A&M College of Business Administration.
As an administrator, Clayton served as the vice president and director of the Association of Former Students at Texas A&M in 1977. As a philanthropist, he was a founding member of the Presidents Endowed Scholarship for Gifted Students at Texas A&M. He was also the founder and director of the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute, which is dedicated to the study of desert animals and plants of southwest Texas and Mexico. He also made several significant monetary donations to Texas A&M, including underwriting half of the cost for an alumni center, which bears his name.
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