In 1905, at the age of three, J.B. Saunders and his family moved to Oklahoma Indian Territory. Growing up in the heart of the Oklahoma oil fields, it seemed a given he would go into the oil industry in some fashion.
After graduating from Sapulpa High School, he tried a variety of professions, but he eventually found himself drawn to the oil business that had shaped his young life. In 1937, he organized Triangle Refineries, which grew to be the largest independent marketer of petroleum products in the United States. Twenty years later, Mr. Saunders merged his company with Kerr-McGee. He passed away in 1989.
Mr. Saunders was one of the nine original Trustees of the Oklahoma City Community Foundation, serving from 1969-78. In 1979, he established a fund at the Community Foundation to support Oklahoma Christian University, Oklahoma City University and other charitable interests.
