Gus
Sessions Wortham was born in Mexia, Texas, on 18th February, 1891.
After graduating from the University of Texas he served in the First
World War as an aerial gunnery instructor.
Wortham
moved to Houston and with his father established an insurance agency,
John L. Wortham and Son. In 1926 he joined forces with Jesse
H. Jones,
James A. Elkins and John W. Link to establish the American General
Insurance Company. Wortham served as chairman and chief executive
of the company.
Wortham
was a key member of the Suite
8F Group. The name came from the room in the Lamar Hotel in Houston
where they held their meetings. Members of the group included Lyndon
B. Johnson,
George Brown and Herman
Brown (Brown & Root), James Abercrombie
(Cameron Iron Works), Jesse H. Jones (multi-millionaire
investor in a large number of organizations and chairman of the Reconstruction
Finance Corporation), William Hobby (Governor
of Texas), Richard Russell (chairman
of the Committee of Manufactures, Committee on Armed Forces and Committee
of Appropriations) and John Connally
(Governor of Texas). Alvin Wirtz and Edward
Clark, were also members of the Suite 8F Group.
He served two consecutive
terms as president of the Houston Chamber of Commerce and was director
of the Texas Commercial Bank, Texas Eastern Transmission Company,
Longhorn Portland Cement Company and the Missouri Pacific Railroad.
Gus
Sessions Wortham
died in Houston on 1st September, 1976.
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