Claude Brinegar

Early life and education[edit]

Claude Brinegar was born Claude Rawles Stout on December 16, 1926, to Lyle Rawles Stout and Claude Leroy Stout in Rockport, California, a small lumber town on the coast, 25 miles north of Fort Bragg. After her husband abandoned her and her toddler, Lyle Stout got a teaching job on an Indian reservation. Following her marriage, in 1932, to Butler Brinegar, the boy had a disjointed education, attending a different school each year as his stepfather moved around Northern California for jobs with the Works Progress Administration and other agencies. He legally took his stepfather's last name in 1951. He served in the United States Army, 1945–47, then attended Stanford University, where he received a B.A. in Economics with Great Distinction (1950), an M.S. in Mathematics and Statistics (1951), and a Ph.D. in economic research (1953). He was also elected to Phi Beta Kappa. While pursuing his Ph.D., Mr. Brinegar was a research assistant with the Food Research Institute in Stanford, California, and an Economic Consultant to the Emporium-Capwell Corporation in San Francisco, California.


Brinegar joined the Union Oil Company (later called Unocal Corporation) in 1953 as an economic analyst and held several positions in economics, planning and research until 1965, when he was elected vice president for corporate planning. In October 1965, Union Oil and the Pure Oil Company merged. Brinegar was appointed president of Pure Oil and remained in that position when Pure became Union 76. He was also elected senior vice president of the firm and a member of Union Oil's board of directors and executive committee.