Year Inducted: 1992
John K. McKinley is retired chairman and chief executive officer of Texaco Inc., having served that corporation for a total of 45 years. He continues to serve as a director and consultant for Texaco Inc. McKinley joined the company’s Port Arthur, Texas, facility in 1941, and served in the area of research and development through 1960. He was elected president of Texaco and a director of the company in 1971, and chairman, president and chief executive officer in 1980, a position he held until his retirement in 1986.
He holds a number of patents in chemical and petroleum processing, and still counts as a hobby personally testing new developments in automotive engines, petroleum fuels and electronic devices. A registered professional engineer, he is a member of a number of professional and technical organizations, including Tau Beta Pi and Sigma Xi.
A native of Tuscaloosa, McKinley was graduated from the University of Alabama with the bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering and the master’s degree in organic chemistry. He continues his association with the university’s college of engineering through membership in the University of Alabama (Capstone) Engineering Society. He is also a graduate of the advanced management program at Harvard University, and received the honorary doctor of laws degree from both the University of Alabama and Troy State University.
He was awarded the George Washington Honor Medal by the Freedoms Foundation, and the gold medal by the National Institute of Social Sciences. In 1982 he was inducted into the Alabama Business Hall of Fame, and the following year into the Alabama Academy of Honor. He is also the recipient of the American Eagle Award by the Invest-in-America National Council, and of the Wallace Award given by the American-Scottish Foundation. He is also a recipient of the Joseph Wharton Business Statesman Award and the Henry Laurance Gantt Memorial Medal presented by the American Management Association and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
In 1984 the Belgian government presented McKinley with the Commandeur de L’Ordre de la Courrone, the highest decoration awarded to a corporate leader in recognition of significant contributions to Belgium’s economic sector. A director of the Americas Society and the Business Council for Effective Literacy, Inc., he is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Business Council. He has also been elected to the board of overseers and the board of managers of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
Beyond his professional honors, McKinley was also elected as a managing director of the Metropolitan Opera Association, and served as national chairman of the Met’s Centennial Endowment Fund Drive. He now serves as honorary director of the Metropolitan Opera Association. He is also a director of Federated Stores, Inc., and a retired director of Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company, Manufacturers Hanover Corporation, Martin Marietta Corporation, and Merck & Co., Inc. Married to the former Helen Grace Heare, he is the father of two sons, John Key, Jr., and Mark Charles.
