Wealthy oilman was a U.S. ambassador

"My dad supported Michael in everything he did," Terry Huffington said.

"We're a family of peace. We all get along."

Roy Michael Huffington was born Oct. 4, 1917, in Tomball, Texas, and grew up in Dallas.

His father was killed in an accident in a Venezuelan oil field, and Huffington helped his family weather the Depression by delivering newspapers on two routes.

He knew from an early age that he wanted to follow in his father's footsteps. He was a 1938 geology graduate of Southern Methodist University and earned master's and doctoral degrees in geology from Harvard University in the early 1940s.

He returned to Harvard in 1976, where he completed the advanced management program in the business school.

He served in the Navy aboard the aircraft carrier Hornet during World War II, earning the Bronze Star, then joined the Humble Oil and Refining Co. in 1946 as a field geologist.

He worked for Humble -- now Exxon -- in various capacities for the next decade, moved to Houston in 1951 and founded Huffco in 1958. He discovered and developed domestic fields in Texas and Louisiana before the Indonesia find.

Huffington established the Huffington Foundation, which gave millions to Texas charities and academic institutions, including a $10-million gift to Southern Methodist University in 2006.

In 1988, he and his wife, Phyllis Gough Huffington, founded the Huffington Center on Aging at the Baylor College of Medicine.

Huffington's wife died in 2003.

Survivors include his daughter, son and four grandchildren.