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Devon Energy News
Early Days...
Devon was founded in Oklahoma City in 1971 by John W. Nichols and his son J. Larry Nichols. The elder Nichols was raised in Ardmore, Oklahoma, and graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a degree in accounting in 1936. He then became a certified public accountant in Oklahoma City, where he learned the oil business by auditing the books of area oil companies. He became so knowledgeable about how the tax laws impacted the oil industry that in 1950 he was credited with creating the first public oil and gas drilling fund to be registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. His partner was Oklahoma oilman F.G. "Blackie" Blackwood. Over the next two decades their company, Blackwood & Nichols Co., grew into one of the area's leading oil and gas companies. In 1969 he and his son incorporated Devon Energy Corporation in Oklahoma.