Los Angeles County
Biographies
LEONARD
PRESSLEY ST. CLAIR
Leonard Pressley St. Clair, president of Independent Oil Producers Agency, was born in Dutch Flat, Placer County, California, on October 10, 1870; the son of Leonard Pressley, Senior, and Mary Frances (Dunn) St. Clair.
He finished grammar school when sixteen years of age and prepared to enter the State University but his mother vetoed the idea because of her understanding that the evil effects of the wicked City of San Francisco was detrimental to the students of that institution. Hence, no scientific education was acquired.
Mr. St. Clair’s first worthwhile occupation was as superintendent of the Bakersfield (California) Gas & Electric Company, an institution created by his father, and this position lasted from 1888 to 1902. In 1903 he engaged in the oil business as a developer of oil property. In 1904 he was instrumental, with others, in the formation of the Independent Oil Producers Agency, a California corporation composed of a number of small operators, and in 1907 he was elected president, a position he still holds.
In 1909 Mr. St. Clair was elected president of the Producers Transportation Company, a corporation formed to construct a pipe line from the San Joaquin Valley oil fields to tidewater at Port San Louis, and held this position until it was merged with the Union Oil Company. In 1910 he allied himself with the Union Oil Company of California with which he held sundry executive positions and finally in 1930, held the office of president from which he retired in 1938.
During his residence in Bakersfield, California, he was one of the organizers and a director of two of its banks, the First of Kern and the Security Trust and Savings Bank and was actively identified with each until sold to the Bank of America.
Member of the California Club in Los Angeles; the B.P.O.E.; and the Knights of Columbus.
Mr. St. Clair married Annastatia Hayes in 1914. Their home is at 210 South Occidental Boulevard, Los Angeles 4, California.
Offices: 637 Petroleum Building, Los Angeles 15, California.
Transcribed 8-21-14 Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Eminent Californians
1953, by Lee E. Johnson & C. W. Taylor.
Pages 447-448, C. W. Taylor Publ., Palo Alto,
California, 1953.
© 2014 Marilyn R. Pankey.
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