When Erle's son David, his youngest child, told his father he wanted to run the Halliburton Co, the elder man responded, "Like hell you are," David Jr. said. Instead Erle sent his son to work on oil rigs in Louisiana and in Bakersfield, Calif. He found the work "dirty, hot and not fun," David Jr. said, adding that "Dad left the oil business for good" and became a real estate developer.
As an adult, David Halliburton Sr. frequently returned to Baja to fish with friends including Baron Hilton, Dean Martin and John Wayne. Partly so their wives would make the trip, instead of complaining about the men's frequent Mexican fishing trips, David Sr. built the peninsula's first upscale resort, the Twin Dolphin, in 1977.
He insisted that the rooms should have no televisions or telephones. His son remembers him growling, "If you can't put your business in order and spend four or five days without a phone, you're no businessman, and I don't want you in my hotel." (These days cell phones are used discreetly.)
Halliburton continues to resist offers from developers and hotel chains that covet the Twin Dolphin's prime coastline. It doesn't take much to get him started about the development along the Baja coast.
"It's one of the reasons I broke ranks with my family and became a Democrat," he said. "Oil money bought the Twin Dolphin, so maybe I shouldn't complain, but the destruction of the environment has to stop. My dad was a conservationist who worked to protect the oceans, but like a lot of Republicans he would overlook little problems when they interfered with his self-interest. Offshore drilling? A little spilled oil here and there? Oh, it's fine. No problem."
He let loose a deep laugh. "I guess that's a family blind spot."
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