An American Family Oil Dynasty Ends as Hess Sells

One of the first things you notice when entering the Hess Tower in downtown Houston is the original forest-green truck that Leon Hess drove around New Jersey nearly a century ago to deliver fuel.

Now, the Hess name is set to disappear from the ranks of the world’s prominent oil companies. Chevron on Monday said it would acquire the family company for $53 billion, concluding a 90-year saga bookended by the gruff founding father and his gregarious son, current Chief Executive John Hess.