Rash's Surname Index
Notes for C. Henderson Jr. SUPPLEE
Philadelphia Daily News (PA) - Wednesday, February 5, 1992
Deceased Name: HENDERSON SUPPLEE
Henderson Supplee Jr. may have known how to run an oil company, but his love of riding horses came first.
Each morning before leaving for his office at the Atlantic Refining Co., now the Atlantic Richfield Co., Supplee would take one of his horses out for a canter. Then he would attend to the business of refining and selling oil.
"Like his father, he was a horseman all his life," said Supplee's son, Henderson Supplee III. "He always kept horses on his property in Radnor."
Supplee died Sunday in Bryn Mawr Hospital after a brief illness. He was 88 and lived in Radnor.
A Philadelphia native, he was educated at Episcopal Academy and Princeton University, class of 1926. After college, he took a job with his family's company, the Supplee-Wills-Jones Milk Co.
He joined the company in 1927. It was a tradition that family members started in the business at the bottom, delivering milk with a horse-drawn wagon. He was elected president in 1938.
In 1947, Supplee resigned and joined the Atlantic Refining Co. as a vice president for domestic sales. He succeded Robert H. Colley as president in 1952, and was elected board chairman in 1964. He resigned in 1965.
During his tenure at Atlantic Refining, he was instrumental in the merger that produced the Atlantic Richfield Co. and in the discovery and development of the Prudhoe Bay oil fields in Alaska.
"He certainly touched a great many people during his career," his son said. "Everyone seems to have regarded him with great respect and affection."
When Supplee retired from Atlantic, he turned to civic affairs, recreation and the genealogy of his family. He helped trace his family's history and organized the 300th anniversary of his forefather, Andris Souplis's arrival in Philadelphia.
Souplis immigrated to Philadelphia from France and settled in the area of Germantown, where he became the first sheriff. The celebration was held at Valley Forge and attended by family descendants from all around the country.
He also served as chairman of the boards the Episcopal Academy, the Federal Reserve Board of Philadelpia, Babies Hospital of Philadelphia and Camp Tecumseh in New Hampshire.
Supplee also sat on the boards of American Petroleum Institute, Greater Philadelphia Movement, National Dairy Products Corp., Philadelphia Savings Fund Society, United Gas Improvement Co., Chamber of Commerce of Greater Philadelphia, Old Philadelphia Development Corp. and the United Fund.
He was an enthusiastic and loyal alumnus of Princeton. Between 1949 and 1973, he was charter trustee of the university and chaired the Grounds and Buildings Committee for over 20 years.
At almost any home football game, Supplee and his wife, the former Mary Osborne Baker, could be found in the stands.
He also is survived by another son, Andrew; two daughters, Anne Carroll and Betty diValmarana, six grandchildren and a great-grandson.
Services will be held at noon Saturday at Episcopal Academy, Latches Lane, Merion. Burial will be private.
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