Autocratic, commanding, and combative, he infused the company with an aggressiveness that made it into the nation’s number-one marketer of gasoline during the 1920s. “Colonel Bob,” as he was called, was among the most respected and admired leaders not only of the oil industry but of all of American business. Who could believe that someone so upstanding would stoop to besmear himself in the slush of Teapot Dome?
