Frank Seaver

Frank Roger Seaver (April 12, 1883[1]–30 October 1964) was an American lawyer, Naval officer, oil executive, and philanthropist.[2][3]

Frank Seaver and his wife, Blanche, in the 1950s

He grew up in Claremont, California, graduating from Pomona College in 1905,[2] where he managed the football team and served as the first president of the Associated Students of Pomona College.[4] He then attended Harvard Law School[5] and practiced law in Los Angeles, and helped draft the first charter of Los Angeles County.[2] He served in the Navy during World War I and helped establish the California Naval Militia.[2]

He met Edward L. Doheny on a weekend yachting trip in 1919, who hired him to work for his oil enterprise.[2] He became General Counsel and Managing General Agent for Doheny's operations in Mexico from 1921 to 1927, and convinced the Mexican government to hire him for an ambitious road paving project.[2]

He later founded the Hydril Company, a producer of oil drilling equipment.[2] He and his wife, Blanche, were a major contributor to Pomona,[6] where they served as trustees, and where the Seaver Science Center is named after him and several other buildings are named after his family.[7][8] They were also the principal benefactors of the Malibu campus of Pepperdine University, which named its College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences after him,[9][10] and donated portions of their $10.1 million estate (equivalent to $83.3 million in 2019) to other institutions.[11][12]