Los
Angeles County
Biographies
ROBERT M. SANDS
Robert M. Sands, vice president and
general manager of the Petroleum Securities Company, and personal
representative of Edward L. Doheny, was born in Mobile, Alabama, on October 5,
1882. He is the eldest of the ten children
of Charles Dorrance and Isabella (Parker) Sands. His paternal grandfather, Colonel Robert
Martin Sands, for whom he was named, distinguished himself in the Civil War,
having commanded the Third Alabama Regiment.
Gideon M. Parker, the grandfather of Mr. Sands in the maternal line, was
a wholesale dry-goods merchant in Mobile and served as mayor of that city
during the Civil War period.
Robert M. Sands received his early
education in his native city and upon taking up his residence in Montgomery,
Alabama, at the age of seventeen he accepted a position as stenographer in the
law department of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad. He subsequently became secretary to the mayor
of Montgomery, and in August, 1905, found him employed in the division engineers’
office on the great Panama Canal project, and by a series of promotions he
became chief clerk of the Atlantic division, being stationed at the site of the
construction of the Gatun locks and dam.
In June, 1914, Mr. Sands went to New
York City and entered the service of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. In September of that year he became connected
with the then little known, but subsequently well known, Mexican Petroleum
Corporation, and assisted in the handling of that company’s tank steamships. Outstanding ability and service soon
attracted the ever watchful eye of Edward L. Doheny, then
chairman of that company, and Mr. Sands was taken within the executive folds of
the Mexican Petroleum Corporation and the later parent company, the
Pan-American Petroleum & Transport Company.
He remained in executive capacities with these companies until June,
1925, when he came to Los Angeles as personal representative for Edward L.
Doheny and also in an executive capacity with the Pan-American Petroleum
Company. In March, 1929, Mr. Sands was
elected a director of the Petroleum Securities Company and became assistant to the president, Edward L. Doheny, and on July 7,
1931, he became that company’s vice president and general manager. He was elected a director of the Union Bank
& Trust Company on August 27, 1931.
On April 27, 1908, Mr. Sands married
Miss Marcia Gibson (of Chicago) in Tabernilla, Canal
Zone. They live in Beverly Hills,
California, and have three children: Mae
Annette; Robert Gibson, a graduate of Dartmouth College; and Catherine Marcia.
Before coming to Los Angeles, Mr.
Sands resided in Leonia, New Jersey, across the Hudson from New York, where he
was prominent in civic affairs. He was a
member of the local board of education and was at one time its president. He was one of the organizers and is a charter
member of the New York Society of the Panama Canal. He is also a member of the fourth degree
Knights of Columbus; the New York Southern Society; the Los Angeles Athletic
Club; the B. P. O. Elks, No. 99, and the California Club.
Transcribed by
V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: California of the South
Vol. IV, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 241-242, Clarke Publ.,
Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
GOLDEN
NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPHIES