Torkild Rieber
| Torkild Rieber | |
|---|---|
Time magazine cover, 4 May 1936
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| Born |
March 13, 1882 Voss, Norway |
| Died | August 10, 1968 (aged 86) Manhattan, United States |
| Nationality | Norwegian, American |
| Occupation |
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| Known for | Chairman of Texaco |
| Spouse(s) | Miriam Marbe (1909-1938) (her death) (2 children) |
| Children | Ruth, Harold |
Torkild Rieber (March 13, 1882 – August 10, 1968) was a Norwegian immigrant to the United States who became chairman of the Texas Company (Texaco).
Born in a small town in Norway, Rieber became a seaman at the age of 15. By 1904 he was the master of an oil tanker, which was bought the next year by the newly founded Texas Company, or Texaco. He rose steadily through the ranks to become chairman in 1935. The next year he arranged for Texaco to buy the Barco oil concession in Colombia. Over the next three years he oversaw the major engineering feat of opening the remote oilfield and building a pipeline through rugged and jungle-covered terrain to the Caribbean coast.
Rieber was sympathetic to the Fascist regimes in Europe in the 1930s, and illegally supplied oil on credit to Franco's forces during the Spanish Civil War. He also purchased tankers from Germany in exchange for oil. The last tanker was delivered from Hamburg after the outbreak of World War II. For a while Texaco continued to ship oil to Germany via South America. When Rieber's ties to the Nazis were revealed in August 1940 there was a scandal and he was forced to resign. Rieber continued in the oil industry. After Iran nationalized British oil holdings in 1951, followed by a western-sponsored coup in 1953 that restored the Shah to power, Rieber helped negotiate a settlement of the oil dispute.
Rieber was born in Voss, Norway, on March 13, 1882, son of the owner of a dye works in a small town about 60 miles (97 km) from Bergen. His family was Lutheran, and he was brought up in an environment where alcohol, dancing and gambling were strictly forbidden. At the age of 15 Rieber left home and joined the full-rigged sailing ship Hiawatha on a six-month voyage around Cape Horn to San Francisco. On return to Norway he attended a school for sailors, and then found work for two years as quartermaster on a barkentine ferrying indentured Indian laborers from Calcutta to British sugar plantations in the West Indies. In 1901, aged 18, he was in command of a French sailing tanker when he was injured in a shipboard fight while docked in Delaware Bay. He was hospitalized and lost his command.
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