Archives West Finding Aid

A pioneer in the crude oil purchasing phase of the petroleum industry, Ralph Otto Dietler was born December 31, 1890 in Denver, Colorado, to Alioyese and Mary Ellen (Needham) Dietler. He was educated in Denver public schools. He married Christabel E. Scoville November 27, 1920, and had one son, Cortlandt S. Dietler. One of his first jobs was as a salesman of railway supplies for the A.T. Herr Supply Company of Denver, where he worked from 1907 to 1912. In 1912, he became a traveling secretary to the vice president of the Colorado and Southern Railway and, in 1916, was offered a similar position in Chicago for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company, working there until 1918. Drafted into the U.S. Army to serve in the First World War, he served as sergeant 1st class in the Corps of Railroad Engineers from 1918 to 1919, then mustered out following the armistice and moved back to Denver.

Dietler began his oil industry career in 1919 with the Midwest Refining Company of Denver as a stenographer and private secretary to the director, Henry M. Blackmer. He was promoted to the position of assistant to the president in 1928. When Midwest Refining Company was dissolved, following its purchase by Standard Oil Company of Indiana, Dietler transferred to Tulsa to become vice president of Stanolind Crude Oil Purchasing Company, Indiana Standard’s crude buying affiliate. He served Stanolind as vice president from 1931 to 1940, president from 1940 to 1948, and chairman of the board from 1948 to 1955.

Dietler retired from Stanolind in 1955 to work as a private consultant and independent oil producer. He served on the executive committee of the Kansas-Oklahoma division of the Mid-Continent Oil & Gas Association from 1955 to 1956, and he was director of the International Petroleum Exposition held in Tulsa in May, 1959. Hailed as one of the foremost leaders in civic matters in Tulsa, he served on the board of Trustees of Tulsa University for several years and on various committees of the Chamber of Commerce. He was elected to the board of directors and as vice chairman of the Tulsa County chapter of the American Red Cross in 1951 and served as chairman from 1953 to 1956. Ralph O. Dietler died in Tulsa September 19, 1973, at the age of 80.