Page 10 - Volume 13 Number 10

N712GJ taxiing at the Dubois, Wyoming, airport (KDUB). The King Air 200 is shared by two families used mainly as a business tool flying approximately 230 hours a year.
decided to start their own company in 1976. In those days, Nick said, offensive linemen often had jobs outside the football season. Nick had worked on some rigs owned by other people in college so he was familiar with the industry and Eli had worked for Shell Oil after college.
“In Wyoming, oil, gas and minerals were where the action was,” Eli said. “We’ve been in and out of different companies dealing with oil and gas and mineral development since 1976.”
The Bebouts’ core operations have been across three businesses since the early 1980s: Nucor Drilling, Nucor Oil and Gas and Nucor Inc., a construction company. They also have farm and ranch operations.
“The oil and gas industry is a volatile industry, so we have concentrated on diversifying to protect ourselves,” Eli said. “When the oil and gas business is struggling because of outside pressures of pricing and other things, we developed the construction arm of the business to mitigate the subsidence for underground abandoned coal mines. The key for us has been our diversification and the use of an airplane plays a huge role in allowing us to do what we do.”
The brothers both became licensed pilots in 1977, laughing as they retold the often-told tale of Nick wedging his NFL-conditioned 6-foot-7, 300-pound frame into a Cessna 152 for his checkride.
8 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
OCTOBER 2019