The company’s problems were compounded by revelations that Mr. McClendon had taken a personal stake in Chesapeake wells and then used those investments as collateral for up to $1.1 billion in loans, used mostly to pay his share of the cost of drilling those wells.

Those revelations ignited a revolt by Chesapeake’s board, and he was forced to leave the company three years ago.

When Mr. McClendon began quietly acquiring leases around 2005, most energy analysts thought the United States faced a future of gas shortages. Billions of dollars were invested in import terminals that would receive liquefied natural gas from Qatar and other gas-producing countries. But Mr. McClendon’s explorations were so successful that there was no longer any need for imports, and the terminals quickly became virtually unusable.

Now, in a once-unthinkable turnabout, some are being converted to export liquefied natural gas.

Mr. McClendon’s corporate pursuits reflected his eclectic interests. As the company grew from its origins in 1989, he developed a corporate campus in Oklahoma City that looked more like an Ivy League school than a piece of the oil patch, with a cafeteria that served international fare and a gymnasium outfitted like a spa.

Mr. McClendon dabbled in politics and personally appeared in television commercials promoting the benefits of natural gas as a replacement of coal burning for power. He unsuccessfully pushed for natural gas-fueled cars.

Aubrey Kerr McClendon, the son of Joe and Carole Kerr McClendon, was born July 14, 1959, in Oklahoma City into a family steeped in the oil industry. His father was a petroleum products salesman. Aubrey McClendon’s lineage also included Oklahoma notables, among them Robert S. Kerr, a former Oklahoma governor and senator and an oilman himself.