Drilling as a speculator In his younger years, he became a "
roustabout" in the oil business in
Pennsylvania, before making his way to
California, where he worked as a
speculator, drilling wells on contract for big oil companies. He often would take payment as leases instead of cash. and in California's
Kettleman Hills oil fields. Keck was very successful as an oil prospector. In one instance at the height of the 1920s oil boom in Los Angeles, he was the only "wildcatter" to retain a lease on 300 acres of Andrew Joughin's farm outside
Torrance. While other prospectors turned away from the property, Keck's "46 highly productive wells were considered one of California's most successful oil-drilling projects". Author Kevin Krajick has described Keck as "the world's greatest oil prospector, a man whose instincts about the location of petroleum were so uncanny, some believed him clairvoyant." He was one of the first oilmen to move his business to
Houston, Texas, Upon his death in 1964, his son William M. Keck Jr. became Superior's chief executive officer, He served as chairman of Superior. At one point, his fortune was estimated at $160 million, and at the time of his death, he and his family owned 51 per cent of Superior's shares. ==Personal life==