Dr. Charles Anthony Heller, a naturalized citizen of the United States of America from August 22, 1946, was born on July 6, 1891 in Vienna, Austria. He graduated from the Vienna Gymnasium with honors. He thereafter entered the University of Vienna and obtained a doctorate degree in law, with studies in economics, in 1913.

Heller joined the Fanto Petroleum Company, then the largest in Central Europe, as the Private Secretary to the President of the company, Dr. Sigmund Stranky, in 1913--the same year he graduated, starting a career in the petroleum industry that was to become his lifetime vocation. The petroleum industry in Austria had started in 1874 upon the discovery of oil near Kleczany in 1857, before Colonel Drake's first application of boring for oil in 1859 in the USA, instead of mining for oil.

During World War I, Dr. Heller was drafted into the army and was posted to the War Ministry of Austria. He organized the first Petroleum Department of the War Ministry and also served as the Oil Strategist to Emperor Francis Joseph.

After the war, Heller returned to Fanto Petroleum Company in 1918, having been released from the army. He was elected to the Board of Directors. He left Fanto in 1926.

From 1926 to 1932 Heller transacted business with petroleum industries in Austria, Germany, and France. He became a representative of an international banking group in Warsaw, Poland. In 1939 he escaped to Paris from the Nazi invasion of Poland. He finally proceeded to the United States in 1941, having visited the U.S. initially in 1923 while serving with Fanto.

From 1941 to 1944 Heller worked in the chemical and petroleum industry. He later joined a New York petroleum group in which he worked in the position of the Officer-in-charge of drilling operations of the group's activities in Oklahoma City. In 1950 he joined Sonneborn Company, a specialist company in petroleum refining and marketing.

Heller retired from business and devoted his efforts to the study of petroleum economics and politics. In 1961 he became the economic editor for World Petroleum as well as serving as advisor to the governments of Trinidad and Tobago and to the United Nations on world petroleum affairs.

Heller was appointed a member of the three-person Committee on Inquiry that probed the oil industry of Trinidad and Tobago from 1963-1964. He was called back by the government of Trinidad and Tobago as the sole commissioner to investigate the marketing of petroleum and petroleum products in Trinidad and Tobago from 1964-1967. By the request of the government, Heller stayed on to advise the government until 1974, when he terminated his appointment.

Heller wrote extensively on international petroleum affairs (see Box 1 of this collection), particularly on petroleum matters related to developing countries. He also gave a number of public lectures in the area of his expertise. Among his works of writing are, notably, the history of petroleum technology, writings about OPEC (the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, writing both on its existence and development), and petroleum administration.