Robert J. Kleberg Jr. was an American rancher and businessman. He began his career at the King Ranch in 1916 and managed the ranch after his father's death. In 1932 he became the president of King Ranch, Inc.
Background
Robert J. Kleberg Jr. was born on March 29, 1896 in Corpus Christi, Texas, United States, the son of Robert Justus Kleberg, a lawyer and rancher, and Alice Gertrudis King, the youngest daughter of Captain Richard King, founder of a south Texas cattle ranching empire known as the King Ranch. Kleberg, Jr. , had three sisters and a brother, U. S. Congressman Richard M. Kleberg. He spent his childhood at the Santa Gertrudis headquarters of the ranch in Kingsville, Texas, which his father then operated.
Education
Kleberg was educated in local public schools, graduated from high school in Corpus Christi, then took special agricultural courses at the University of Wisconsin for two years, returning home to the Santa Gertrudis Ranch in 1916. He received honorary doctorate in science from the University of Wisconsin in 1967.
Career
Kleberg took over the management of the King Ranch as his father's health failed and became trustee and general manager at the death of his grandmother Henrietta M. King, who was the owner of the ranch, in 1924.
Applying his inventive mind and scientific training to the ranch, Kleberg experimented with cattle breeding, attempting to produce a breed that could withstand the often severe heat and drought conditions of the south Texas coastal plains. From those experiments, some twenty years later, Kleberg produced the first officially recognized American breed of cattle, the hardy, stocky, cherry-red Santa Gertrudis, which can "live and thrive in any climate. On awful real estate they merely thrive; on better real estate they absolutely flourish. "
Kleberg was also successful in developing the grass that sustained his new breed, and within one eight-year period, he not only doubled the carrying capacity (number of cows per acre) of the ranch, but also reduced the time needed to be on pasture by almost half. He demonstrated his ingenuity and inventiveness by devising or adapting means to accomplish virtually any ranching task. His designs included giant machines that uprooted the ubiquitous and water-wasting mesquite brush, dipping vats for ticks, electric cattle prods, and extremely durable fences that use no nails. Many of these devices are still in use.
Under Kleberg's management, the King Ranch acquired adjoining ranches and holdings from other King heirs. After her husband's death in 1932, Kleberg's mother incorporated those holdings and named him president and chief executive officer, a position he held until his death. King Ranch, Inc. , continued to expand, with acquisitions in Australia, Africa, Spain, South America, and California, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and Florida, eventually bringing the total holdings to more than 13 million acres.
Much of this expansion was made possible through the development of oil and gas resources on the ranch, which began with a Humble Oil and Refining Company lease of the entire property in 1933, an arrangement that removed the burden of existing debt and opened the way to the empire building through which Kleberg showed his kinship to his maternal grandfather. Each of them was "an individualist of formidable proportions. " Kleberg's sophistication and charisma are said to have made him and his wife the prototypes of Edna Ferber's novel of Texas ranching, Giant.
Horse breeding produced two equally remarkable accomplishments. Texas quarter-horses, known for their agility and speed, are used on working ranches around the world, but are not noted for their stamina. Kleberg crossbred them with thoroughbreds to produce King Ranch Quarterhorses, a strain coveted for their speed and agility as well as their endurance. In 1935 Kleberg entered thoroughbred racing as a Texas upstart.
Kleberg, known widely as "Mr. Bob, " also directed a number of enterprises in Kingsville, a small town established by his father on land donated by Mrs. King, and in Alice, a town named for his mother. These included a bank, a newspaper, a lumberyard, a department store, a leather shop (which produced boots and saddles for hundreds of Kineños--King Ranch cowboys of Mexican descent), and a dairy that boasted the finest herd of Jersey milk cows his skillful breeding could produce. Kleberg was on the board of directors of numerous corporations and associations, and he continued in the active management of the ranch until his death.
Achievements
Kleberg was known for his contribution to development and expansion of the King Ranch Inc. , which became the largest producer of beef in the country. He was distinguished for his development of the first American breed of beef cattle, the Santa Gertrudis and the grazing grasses.
He was also credited with the new breed of horses, called King Ranch Quarterhorses. He produced champions such as Assault, a Triple Crown winner, and Kentucky Derby winners Bold Venture and Middleground, as well as a dozen others who carried the King Ranch racing silks to earnings of millions of dollars.
Politics
Kleberg was a Democrat who was powerful in Texas politics. He had close ties with President Lyndon Johnson, but considered himself a conservative.
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
"[Kleberg] dramatically recast and vastly enhanced the fortunes of an already proud and powerful family. . He has made it something of a world force, as distinct and productive in its speciality as I. B. M. and General Motors and Boeing are in theirs. "
Connections
On March 2, 1926, after a three-week courtship, Kleberg married Helen Mary Campbell, daughter of a congressman from Kansas. They had one child.
