William Herbert Hunt (born March 6, 1929) is an American oil billionaire, who along with his brothers

Nelson Bunker Hunt Nelson Bunker Hunt (February 22, 1926 – October 21, 2014) was an American Petroleum, oil company executive. He was a billionaire whose fortune collapsed after he and his brothers William Herbert Hunt, William Herbert and Lamar Hunt, Lamar ...

and

Lamar Hunt Lamar Hunt (August 2, 1932 – December 13, 2006) was an American businessman most notable for his promotion of American football, soccer, and tennis in the United States. He was the principal founder of the American Football League (AFL) and M ...

tried but failed to corner the world market in

silver Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical co ...

. According to

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also rep ...

, as of January 2015 his net worth is estimated at $2.0 billion.

Early life

William Herbert Hunt was born in 1929 to Lyda Bunker and the oil well

wildcatter A wildcatter is an individual who drills wildcat wells, which are exploration oil wells drilled in areas not known to be oil fields. Notable wildcatters include Glenn McCarthy, Thomas Baker Slick Sr., Mike Benedum, Joe Trees, Clem S. Clarke, ...

H. L. Hunt Haroldson Lafayette Hunt Jr. (February 17, 1889 – November 29, 1974) was an American oil tycoon. By trading poker winnings for oil rights according to legend, but more likely through money he gained from successful speculation in oil leases, h ...

Career

In the 1970s Hunt and his brother

acquired 195 million ounces of silver, worth nearly $10 billion at the peak. When the price of silver collapsed 80% in 1980 the brothers lost their fortune in the silver trading scandal called

Silver Thursday Silver Thursday was an event that occurred in the United States silver commodity markets on Thursday, March 27, 1980, following the attempt by brothers Nelson Bunker Hunt, William Herbert Hunt and Lamar Hunt (also known as the Hunt Brothers) t ...

; together they lost a billion dollars. William Herbert Hunt went bankrupt in 1990, but was able to recover years later. In 2012, Hunt sold a minor portion of Petro-Hunt's assets in the Williston Basin to Halcon Resources for $1.45 billion, lifting his net wealth to an estimated $3 billion. Petro-Hunt continues to operate in the Williston Basin and across the US.

Personal life

Hunt lives in

Dallas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County wi ...

, Texas, and has five children.

References

Living people American commodities traders American billionaires American businesspeople in metals Hunt family John Birch Society members Texas Republicans 1929 births 20th-century American businesspeople American businesspeople in the oil industry {{US-business-bio-1920s-stub