Murray bennett story part 11

byJoezout

1.2K followers

4 years ago

ENGAGEMENT THEN A JOB AND WEDDING BELLS RING

Murray met his wife on a double date for Murray it was also a blind date, they got along famously and continued to date for the next nine months. As love would have it, Murray proposed to his future new wife Betty at a roller rink and that is when they became engaged in August 1959. The ring he gave her was his mother’s engagement ring that his mother had given him once he became a young man and he had carried ever since on his key ring.

Murray’s wife Betty came from a wealthy family her father worked in the State Department and her mother was an Army nurse with the rank of Lieutenant. Her mother never wanted Betty to marry an enlisted man let alone a draftee such as Murray. This all occurred very soon to the time in 1959 when Murray was discharged and the sudden death of Betty's father.

After Murray left the Army and returned to Amarillo Texas, he moved in with one of his aunt’s and found a job at the Amarillo National Bank as a mail boy. He had already put it in an application at Pioneer natural gas where he had 1 interview and after working for the bank for about two months, he had the opportunity of a second interview at the gas company.

Murray was hired by the Pioneer Natural gas company and was employed in the warehouse, after six months one of the managers came to him and asked if he could operate a 10 key adding machine, Murray replied if he could operate a Massey Harris combine he could handle the 10 key adding machine so he got the job.

He worked on the adding machine for a couple of months until another manager came to him and asked if he would want to work in the taxes and insurance department which would be a significant increase in pay and of course Murray jumped at it.

On, January 1st, 1960 another significant event occurred in Murray’s life, he was married. His fiancée Betty flew into the Amarillo airport on Braniff airlines in the early afternoon, Murray met there with the marriage license in hand. From there they proceeded to the same preacher that married his mother and father that same preacher presided over their wedding vows.

After they had been married, they went to the small town of Tulia where they spent 1 weekend at a motel, then Betty went home, and Murray went back to work. Within a couple of weeks Betty returned to Texas to stay for good.

Murray learned about taxes pretty much by the seat of his pants, he went alone to deal with the Commissioners court, each school in each city and county, or any other taxing body within a county. He would have to negotiate his company’s taxes with each one of them, it was a real learning process, a process he took to quickly and eagerly he enjoyed it.

This was a job that Murray had to learn entirely on his own no instruction, no lessions, no help whatsoever yet he excelled at it because he enjoyed it. I think this is a great lesson for everyone in WA, within Wealthy Affiliates we have available the best lessons and assistance anyone can ask for. In addition to this we have our fellow members that we can query whenever we have question on anything. Plus we enjoy what we do so I see no reason for us not excell at what we are doing as Murray did in what he was doing.

He was negotiating his company’s taxes against experienced lawyers and CPA s, Murray only had one semester of college and here he was beating the dickens out of these experienced professionals because he knew the real value of the property and they did not.

Pioneer natural gas had at one time 100,000 miles of pipeline and 250,000 customers which was termed a daisy chain operation. The Texas Railroad commission which is in control of all the natural gas and oil in Texas was very dissatisfied with the size of this company. Pioneer natural gas had to sell off some of their pipeline and took the money and invested it in diversifying.

Some of that money went into buying oil well leases which they would then proceed to drill more wells for oil and natural gas on the same land. This turned out to be a very profitable business for them, they hit one huge oil well near Amarillo which produced 4000 barrels a day.

The selling of the pipeline and the diversifying as well as the purchasing of oil well leases including the oil well and natural gas production was all part of Murray’s job. Anything to do with taxes or insurance involving the Pioneer natural gas fell to Murray and his department which was Murray by himself.

From May 15th until September 1st Murray would travel 5,000 miles a month around Texas visiting various equalization boards where he had to dicker the value of the Pioneer natural gas company property for tax purposes. The remaining time of the year he gave the accounting department the forecasts of estimated accrued taxes for the year, held safety meetings, and negotiated with workers comp employees.

By this time Pioneer natural gas had diversified into silver mines, a uranium mine, and had purchased 29 deep drilling rigs plus International Tool and Supply.

Let the prayers flow for Florentino and his daughter, may we pray to hear from him.

As always, any constructive criticism, or just small comments are appreciated, thank you in advance.

Joe