History of Fronk Oil

Back in the early years of Phillips 66 if a now called marketer didn’t own their business Phillips had what they called “Agents”.
Harold Simpson, Vernon's brother in law married to sister Hazel Fronk became an Agent in October 1936 called Simpson Petroleum from Farnsworth, Texas. Vernon began working for him in high school so that he could help raise money for his mother, whose income was then around $87 month.

Interesting enough Phillips back then would dispatch agent's truck drivers themselves out of Borger, Texas to take care of various P66 dealers in Eastern New Mexico and all of the Texas panhandle. Most all transports back then could only haul 5700 gallons of gasoline. My uncle Harold used International KR-11 trucks. My mother, Imogene even drove a truck some and hauled aviation gasoline to various Air Force bases.

Vernon’s brother, Ronald Fronk hauled P66 Gasoline for years. Harold Simpson had several relatives that were very loyal to Phillips and either sold or hauled product for them as well. They are:
Harold's son - Don Simpson that took over the business in Farnsworth
Ezra Simpson - P66 station in Elmwood, Oklahoma
Byron Simpson - P66 station in Mobeetie ,Texas
Virgil Simpson - Owner of Groendyke Transports in Borger, Texas.

Vernon and the Simpsons were personal friends of Harold Groendyke whom was raised in Beaver County Oklahoma. Harold bought his first truck from Harold Simpson and began hauling gas for the P66 Agent “McGibbon Oil” in Perryton,Texas. I’m talking about the Groendyke Transports that now resides in Enid, Oklahoma. https://groendyke.com/

“Booker Oil” in Booker , Texas was wanting out of the business, so Vernon Fronk was offered this and paid the Agent $2700 for his building and equipment. Fronk Oil was formed.
Our business consisted of Farmers and ranchers. Products included were all gasoline grades, diesel fuel and lubricants.
Imogene Fronk was Vernon’s bookkeeper and worked in the business until the early 2000’s

In the early 1961's the company added propane for residential and drilling rigs.

1973 was an exciting year for the company. Vernon and Imogene’s son in law, Tom Jones married to their oldest daughter Norma moved from Canadian, Texas and began working for the company until his death in June 1998.
In 1974 the company built a new facility on the lot east of town where the propane storage was located. The company was growing exponentially in the oil and gas segments with Unit Corporation, Slawson Oil, Leonard Hudson, Mewbourne Oil and various others. Vernon’s agriculture business was also expanding outside the local community of Booker.

In 1974 we moved to our new 3 acre location on the east side of Booker TX, where the propane storage plant was located. It consisted of a 1750 ft office area along with 4800 square ft of warehouse space and a 3500 square ft shop.

In 1980, Vernon and Imogene’s son, Keith was brought into the business full time. He would work for the company during the summers when not in school starting in the 3rd grade. Back in those days there was a farmer per section of land or less, so we had lots of customers. One of Keith’s favorite things at work was filling the farmers up at the loading dock and visiting with each of them.
Keith learned all areas of the business from deliveries to rigging and working on trucks in the shop. Vernon had Keith in a transport at the age of 17 back when this was legal. Keith’s most challenging year was in 1982 when Vernon was off for heart surgery so Keith learned payroll, credit cards and many other aspects of office duties.

Tragedy strikes: On December 2nd 1983 at the age of 63, Vernon was out making a delivery to a Phillips 66 booster station and didn’t return. When Keith got back to the office from his deliveries, he went out to where Vernon was. He found him slumped over deceased in the cab of his truck. Tom Jones met Keith at the hospital and brought him back to Booker where he met his mother and a host of friends consoling the family members. Never forgetting what Tom said during the ride home, “Keith you are now the man of the house and you must remain strong for this family and business”. Keith was then 22 years of age.

Prices plummeted from over $35 per barrel in 1982 down to under $10 by 1986. The company had still been doing a decent business, but it finally caught up to us. We did all we could to keep all current workers busy. One of the most crazy things we did was haul swinging meat from our next door neighbor Booker Packing Company until the economy returned.

In 1987 the company bought out the Farnsworth, Texas operation where Vernon originally started. It was first ran as a full service station until converted over to a retail convenience store. It is still in operation today.

April 1st 1989 to date Sheri Fronk, Keith’s wife began working in the office for the company. She has been a big help from office managing, payroll, excise tax reports, income tax filings and trust work for the family.

The company decided to get a taste of retail so in 1991 it took over the leased full service stations in Booker and added some retail C-store space.
In January 1994 Sheri thought it would be a good idea to put Pizza in our stores, after lots of research we chose Piccadilly Circus Pizza from Landmark products out of Milford Iowa and continue to this day. Rod Simonson, owner of Landmark products helped us to become very successful in this business and became a good friend. 
In 1995 we added Perryton Texas so to date we have Booker, Farnsworth, Perryton, Follett operating as Cstores and Canadian and Guymon Oklahoma as unattended sites.
The Cstore locations are named after Imogene Fronk and called “Imo’s Country Stores”
In 1992 a NAPA Parts store was added to the wholesale location and was open until both the Chevy and Ford dealerships closed along with four other mechanic shops.

Keith has always stayed up with technology. In 2001, the company introduced cellular tank monitors so that it could take care of the expanding geographical area the company was trying to service. To date, we now monitor over 7000 tanks with this technology.

Skylar Fronk, Keith and Sheri’s son began working for the company. He started from sweeping floors to waiting on walk in customers to making fuel and oil deliveries then driving a transport.
Since taking over the transport division over the last 5 years he has grown it to over 60 units logging over 5 million miles per year and in excess of 125 loads per day. He is impeccable on prompt delivery, nice looking trucks and trailers and courteous drivers.
Skylar's company name is Expeditious Trucking.

On June 2012 the company moved to its current 10 acre location still in Booker, Texas. After this move, it was awarded the status of “ Top Tier Marketer” by Phillips 66 lubricants. The company remains a top tier to this day.
Fronk Oil handles the complete product chain of custody from the P66 blending facility in Sulfur LA to it’s main facility in Booker TX then loaded onto the delivery unit to the customer, all being sampled for top quality. This facility remains as company headquarters

Sulie Harper our oldest daughter came on board with the company January 9th 2017. Due to company growth she is in charge of HR and fuel excise and sales tax reporting. She works remotely for the company from Leander Texas.

Currently the company has over 5000 customers. Founder Vernon always preached that no matter the size, that customer was just as important as the largest. This remains in effect to this day. You can get product from anywhere but you have to remain the best in service.

All refined fuels including Gasoline, Diesels, Jet A and Aviation gasoline, regular and refrigerated propane. Chemicals including all classes of antifreeze and methanol. Lubricants by Phillips 66, Petro Canada,VP Racing ZXP and Lancer Industries.
The freight division hauls all of the above including mineral oil, Bio and ethanol.

Our main logistics for business include:
Booker, Amarillo, Fritch, Lubbock and Odessa TX. Guymon, Seiling, Woodward and Oklahoma City OK. Hugoton and Southwest KS

A lot of our growth was due to acquiring the following companies:

Simpson’s Petroleum Station in Farnsworth TX
McGibbon Oil in Perryton TX
Perkins Petroleum in Guymon OK
Custom Propane in Fritch TX
Gruver Oil in Gruver TX
Follett Propane in Follett TX
Bultman Propane in Elkhart KS
BCI Propane in Hugoton KS
Clayton Propane in Seiling and Woodward OK