Hall of Fame Member Biographies

John H. Kane

John H. Kane was born in Pennsylvania in 1874, and moved to Kansas with his father, a Civil War veteran, in 1885. He graduated from the University of Kansas law school in 1900 and practiced law in Kansas City. He moved to Indian Territory in 1904, and soon became a prominent oil and gas attorney. In 1917 he helped to incorporate the Phillips Petroleum Company, and became its chief counsel. He became Executive Vice President of the company, second in command only to Frank Phillips. In 1928, Kane was president of the Oklahoma Bar Association, and was appointed to the original board of the State Regents in 1941. Kane died in 1955 and was inducted into the Oklahoma Higher Education Hall of Fame in 2000.