Walt Helmerich, III, had joined the company in 1950 fresh from the Harvard Business School. He had not planned on a career in oil, and it was a long way from Harvard Square to the Texas oil fields. Carl Young, a man who embodied the rugged style of field management, remembers: "When Walt came out to west Texas, he was driving a Cadillac convertible. When he got a look at the place, he left it in a garage in Midland and rented an old Chevrolet to drive in the field."
He quickly discovered why his father had such a soft spot for field people. They were a special breed: tough, determined, fiercely independent, and always ready to pick up and move to a new drilling site. Carl Young recalls that by the time his oldest child was 16, the family had moved 48 different times, and had lived in several towns more than once.
Yet as much as he respected field work, Walt Helmerich knew his contribution would be made in the head office where he would introduce a new management focus.
As the 1950s slump deepened, the young Helmerich, who by 1954 had been named Executive Vice President, was convinced the company's approach to costing and bidding jobs was obsolete at worst and wasteful at best. He rounded up a team of several newcomers to help him make some drastic changes. All were under 35 years old.
Dr. Robert W. Haigh became Controller, and developed a sophisticated cost accounting system. He had been a Harvard Business School professor, and had co-authored a textbook on the development and integration of the oil industry.
Bob Gambrell became Assistant Controller and installed Haigh's cost accounting system. A graduate accountant, he had worked in the field as a toolpusher and roustabout and knew what the real world of drilling was all about. Together with Norman Farrell, who was later to become Treasurer, Gambrell built one of the most respected financial organizations in the industry.
Sam Brown was another college professor who had taught at the University of Texas and the University of Tulsa. He was made the contract representative, and quickly turned thumbs down on the old practice of handing out "gratuities." The company's services would be sold strictly on performance.
Dick Horkey came on board as legal counsel in 1955, and later rose to become Executive Vice President of the company.
Lee Daniel, who had formerly owned his own drilling company in California, became Vice President of Drilling. He brought new ideas from his West Coast business to meld with the expertise of the Helmerich & Payne old-timers.