Ira Jon Brumley

1939 - 2025

Ira Jon Brumley

March 20, 1939 - July 2, 2025

Fort Worth, Texas - Ira Jon Brumley, who devoted his singular talents to both entrepreneurial ventures and civic engagement, died Wednesday in Fort Worth. He was 86.

In a career that spanned seven decades, Brumley was a driving force behind many consequential deals and companies in the independent oil and gas sector, setting a record for public listings by any individual on the New York Stock Exchange.

Equally important were the often thorny assignments for which he volunteered - leading a commission to improve public schools in Fort Worth; merging Fort Worth Children's and Cooks Children's hospitals to form one of the best children's hospitals in Texas; and implementing public education reform as Chairman of the Texas State Board of Education. No problem was too difficult. "Let's start with a clean sheet of paper," he'd say when confronted with seemingly intractable issues.

Even during the busiest periods of his career, he remained deeply dedicated to his family. He coached every youth sport his kids played, and some they didn't. Teaching his kids and grandkids how to hunt, fish, shoot a gun and to identify the constellations in the night sky, he passed on his lovefor the outdoors. "He was never too busy for us. We always felt we were the most important thing in his life," said his daughter, Carla Brown.

At the heart of all of his endeavors was a simple truth: he was deeply interested in other people, who in turn were profoundly impacted by the warm glow of his attention. He peppered friends, colleagues, children and strangers alike with thoughtful questions about their lives. His bright, deep-set eyes conveyed an intensity of purpose, a restless mind and an appetite for mischief.

He built wide networks of unusual allies and unorthodox teams to tackle all manner of business and civic challenges, empowering his people and infusing them with high expectations and unimpeachable standards of trust and integrity.

"With every team he built, he wanted them to be tough," said his son Jonny Brumley. "To make a tough team, you have to love your people, and he did."

Brumley's legacy is so wide ranging that it defies description.

"He had such a radiant imagination," said his wife Rebecca Brumley. "And he brought it to bear against every unsolved problem he encountered."

EARLY YEARS.

Brumley was born in 1939 to Raymond and Florence Brumley in Pampa, Texas, the third of three boys. His older brothers were Carl and Harold. Emerging from a childhood that fostered a deep sense of independence but didn't always offer support, Brumley thrived at the nearby University of Texas. He could hear the bells of the UT Tower from his family home in Austin, and in a sense he felt destined to attend. "I didn't know people decided where to go to college," his daughter, Marion Singleton, recalled him saying. "I just got on a different bus."

Being a Longhorn suited him from early days. He joined the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, making lifelong friends and considerable mischief. After a rocky start, by his junior year he excelled in academics and caught the attention of mentors who would shape his life and career. He developed a deep love for UT that never abated.

One of his proudest honors was being named UT Distinguished Alumnus in 2011. Brumley went on to help found the Strauss Center at the LBJ School and the Jon Brumley Venture Labs at the McCombs School of Business. All three of his children went to UT, along with several grandchildren. He took every opportunity to live vicariously through these connections, visiting campus often and reveling in their experiences.

Brumley married Mary Stewart Thomas in 1961, a marriage that lasted 29 years and produced their three children: Marion, Carla and Jonny.

After graduating from UT in 1961, Brumley enrolled at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. It was a point of pride, and possible exaggeration, that he entered with the lowest college grades of anyone in his class but graduated in two years with the highest scores on his comprehensive exams.

BUSINESS ADVENTURES.

Early in his career, Brumley joined Southland Royalty in Fort Worth, whose primary interest was in oil and gas development. As a junior executive he was tapped to run an unusual subsidiary - King Candy Company. His creative style and entrepreneurial approach caught the attention of senior leaders.

Soon after, he was asked to lead the company's defense against a hostile takeover led by T. Boone Pickens. Brumley's team won, and soon he was named President of Southland. Pickens took notice, and their paths would cross again years later. In 1985, Southland was acquired by Burlington Northern, prompting Brumley to look for his next adventure.

Along with partners Steve Palko and Bob Simpson, Brumley founded Cross Timbers Oil Company in 1986. The company, later XTO Energy, built a portfolio of long-lived oil and gas production properties, going public in 1993. In 1996 Brumley was recruited by his former adversary Pickens and financier Richard Rainwater to run Mesa Petroleum, where he engineered a merger with Parker & Parsley to form Pioneer Natural Resources.

In 1998, Brumley co-founded Encore Acquisition Company with his son Jonny, again acquiring oil and gas properties with long-lived reserves. The company went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2001. Forbes Magazine named Jon and Jonny entrepreneurs of the year in a cover story in 2005. Encore was acquired by Denbury Resources in 2010.

"It is hard to imagine how lucky I feel to have gotten to build a company like Encore with my Dad," said Jonny Brumley. "I got to learn from the best."

CIVIC ENGAGEMENT.

In the early 1980's Brumley was asked to lead a commission to address the failures of school desegregation and busing in Fort Worth with no other qualifications than his reputation and integrity. The issue was complex and fraught, and any basis for agreement among the highly contentious parties was illusive.

At one public meeting, he was confronted by a local Black parent that said he didn't understand the challenges being faced by kids in her community. Brumley admitted as much, and proposed they ride the school buses together so he could see for himself. They did, informing Brumley and creating another one of those unlikely alliances. "She was right," Brumley said. "We didn't understand."

Under Brumley's leadership, the commission produced a bold report with concrete directives: among them to close underperforming schools, redirect funding to the neediest schools and establish magnet programs of excellence within previously "minority" schools to draw in more diverse student bodies.

The report won unanimous support from commission members, the local NAACP and the Mexican American Educational Advisory Commission. The presiding federal judge called it the finest example of a citizen's commission his court had ever seen.

Brumley's reputation as a problem solver soon landed him another difficult role in public life. In 1984, the Texas legislature passed sweeping reforms to public education. Gov. Mark White appointed Brumley to chair the State Board of Education, charged with implementing the reforms.

In the governor's mansion the day of their appointment, Jon met Rebecca Dawson Canning, who was named vice chair of the new board. They worked together, often in the face of hostile opposition, to implement reforms including rigorous teacher standards and the "no pass no play" rule requiring students to maintain passing grades in all of their classes in order to participate in athletics.

After the end of their terms on the State Board of Education, Jon married Becky, who became the great partner of his life. For their honeymoon they canoed the Rio Grande River in West Texas.

THE NEXT CHAPTER.

While his entrepreneurial adventures in the energy business continued, Jon and Becky teamed up for an active life. Together they built Red Oak Ranch at Crockett's Bounty on the original "bounty" land granted to the widow Elizabeth Crockett by the Republic of Texas after her husband Davy Crockett was killed at the Alamo. The home they built and the ranch around it was Brumley's pride and his refuge. The pair hosted friends for suppers at the house during peak bluebonnet season and invited grandchildren for camp-style days with jug-line fishing and games.

Jon and Becky also built the Red Oak Foundation, perhaps the one venture in which Jon was happy to take a back seat. Under Becky's management, the Foundation has given away nearly 900,000 books, promoting early childhood literacy in Fort Worth. Its work continues today.

Brumley never retired. He continued working and tackling problems his entire life, setting plans and teams in motion that he probably knew would outlive him. In 2012, Brumley founded Bounty Minerals to acquire mineral rights and develop natural gas resources in Appalachia. He was enormously proud of the team, led by CEO Tracie Palmer, running the company, and continued to serve as executive chairman.

The romance between Jon and Becky never faded. He called her Belle and showered her with bell-themed jewelry and gifts. They rode bicycles in far-flung places like Latvia and Morocco, Italy and Ireland. But time together at Crockett's Bounty was most precious to both of them. Spontaneous picnics on the hill amongst the wildflowers; canoeing on the back lakes among migrating ducks and geese; an endless stream of inventive projects like keeping bees and planting an orchard of peach trees. During the Covid isolation, they had dress up nights every Wednesday with dinner and dancing - just the two of them. A typical note left recently on the kitchen window sill read "Belle - You decorated my life. Thanks! I love you. Jon"

Brumley is survived by wife Rebecca, his children Marion (Steve), Carla and Jonny (Lori) and grandchildren Jake, Thomas, Hunter, Cormac, Francesca, Will, Anna Brittan and Mariel, along with Rebecca's children Leigh (Bryce), Peter, Benjamin and Caleb (Wade), and grandchildren Dawson (Mary) and Brennon.

Services will be held at the First United Methodist Church at 2:00 p.m. on July 15, followed by the burial at Greenwood Memorial Park with a reception to follow.