In life, some things come from vision and planning. Other good things come from hard work. Discovering my passion for geology came from sheer dumb luck!

I should have discovered geology sooner. It was in my blood --- literally. My great-grandfather, John Chisholm, died prospecting for gold out west. My father, grandfather, and three uncles all spent their careers in the mining industry. Dad even majored in geology. I was exposed to mining and geology through such glamorous summer jobs as laying new railroad track into a limestone quarry and manually loading limestone blocks onto trucks. I now suspect that my father helped me get these jobs not to encourage an interest in geology, but to motivate me to get a college education so that I would not have to do such backbreaking work as a career.

What did I decide to major in when I got to college with all of that mining exposure? Why, Spanish, of course. I had just spent a year in Bogotá, Colombia as a high school foreign exchange student, was fluent in Spanish, and absolutely loved the South American people and cultures. Of course, I had no idea what I was going to do with a Spanish major, but it seemed logical at the time.

The course of my life changed dramatically with what I thought was a simple decision. Dartmouth is a liberal arts school, and I needed one more course to fulfill my science distributive requirement. I had put off taking that last science course, and it was now fall term of my junior year. I made the relatively random decision to take the introductory geology class, and the rest, as they say, is history. I could not believe how incredibly interesting the class was! I was totally hooked. Even though I was just a couple of courses away from finishing my Spanish major, I decided I had to change my major to geology. That change made my junior and senior years pretty intense, but my new-found passion for geology made it all worthwhile.

The last part of my story is how I became a petroleum geologist. I immediately went on to Stanford after graduating from Dartmouth. I decided to go into mining like the rest of my family, and Stanford had a very good mining geology program. I discovered, however, that I did not have that same passion for my new geology coursework and decided it was due to a lack of enough real-world working experience to which I could apply the knowledge. I took a leave of absence from Stanford after two terms and was hired by Getty Oil for six months to hike deserts, climb mountains, and look for gold, silver, and copper. It was an extremely exotic experience, but I ultimately realized that I did not have a passion for mining geology. There did not seem to be any reason to return to Stanford to finish my master’s degree, and I found myself with no plans for the future for the first time in my life.

Here is where the second stroke of dumb luck came to the rescue. I had been based in Salt Lake City with Getty. Once my job was over, I spontaneously decided to go back to Stanford one last time to see my friends in the geology department, and I delayed heading back home to Ohio where I would have to ultimately figure out what I wanted to do with my life. My unannounced arrival on campus ended up being on the first day of a two-day geology job fair. That evening there was a reception with the recruiters. All my friends were going to be there, and the college provided free food and booze! I did not think that it could get any better than that until I met two really terrific Sun Oil geologists. The next thing I knew, I was in Dallas with a four-month job exploring for oil and gas for Sun. After mapping for only a couple of weeks, I was amazed that anything could be so interesting, challenging, and fun. I had rediscovered my passion for geology. I immediately went back to Stanford, and in nine months, finished my master’s degree in petroleum geology. I am fortunate to be able to say that the challenge and creativity involved with oil and gas exploration has kept my passion for geology alive throughout my career.

Duncan Chisholm Geologist

Earth has always fascinated me. I grew up in Bartlesville, Oklahoma about five blocks from the river. What we called the, “Woods,” was about two blocks from the house on our side of the river, and my brothers and I often went there to play. Most of the bottom of the river seemed to be covered with mud, but spots along the river had rapids with a hard rock bottom. My mother managed to retain part of the family farm on which she had been raised and my grandfather continued to live there. We kept a cow there which had to be milked every day, and we farmed part of it until I was in junior high school. I went to the farm daily until I was about fifteen, and continued to go regularly until I left home. My other grandparents lived outside Seguin, Texas and we visited that farm every summer until I was nine years old. We visited relatives in Colorado shortly before World War II and relatives in Oregon and California after the war.

The, “Woods,” had oil wells, with sucker rods connecting pump jacks to the central pump station, which we had to step over while playing there. Oil wells were on land adjoining the farm, but none on our land. The hill above the farm was called, “Circle Mountain,” because of its crescent shape. I collected arrow heads and fossils from the farm and other areas. An isolated mound was on the west side of town near the airport. Traveling back and forth to Texas we passed oil fields with so many flares burning at night it was almost like day light near some fields. Traveling through the west raised my curiosity about the mountains, valleys, lava flows, volcanic cones, rivers and other natural phenomena that were seen. Before I graduated from high school, I had seen many things about the earth I could not explain, and still can’t.

Sometime early in life, I had decided I wanted to be an engineer. Bartlesville was headquarters for Phillips and Cities Service oil companies, Reda Pump Company and H. C. Price Pipeline Construction Company while I was young. My grandfather worked at the zinc smelters, and I knew I didn’t want to work there. One evening, a geologist who had worked mapping geology in conjunction with construction of the Alcan Highway through Canada and part of Alaska gave a talk to a group of us, and that aroused my interest. His talk led me to believe geology might be able to answer some of my questions about what I had seen on Earth.

Bud Wilkinson had offered me a football scholarship to Oklahoma University, but I didn’t think his offer was serious and they had so many veterans playing football I wasn’t sure about making the team, so I continued to look. Some alumni from Colorado School of Mines talked to me about playing football there, and after checking a little, I decided to go there. I could study geology and engineering at the same time at the Colorado School of Mines.

After graduation from Mines, I served as a Military Engineer Pipeline officer in Korea during that conflict. Even my military service was connected to the oil industry.

All of my questions about our Earth haven’t been answered, but I am still working on it.

Ray Govett
Geologist

I still remember sitting on the floor of my apartment in Austin flipping through the course book. I had just finished my sophomore year at U.T. with a “D” in the second semester of Organic Chemistry. That meant Dental School was out of the question. What would I do now?

I came across “Geology” and thought to myself “Why not?” After all, my mother was a geologic draftsman, working out of our house. As I remember, most of her client/ geologists that came by the house seemed to be doing pretty well. Neal Clayton, Chuck Forney, Jim Knupke – They all drove nice cars, anyway.

After my first geology class with Dr. Folk, I was hooked! I began to see the world around me in a different light. The hours and days I had spent with my parents treasure hunting on Padre Island (even before the National Seashore) took on new meaning. There were depositional processes going on around me all my young life, and I had not realized it! Now I could enjoy my fishing and hunting and diving trips even more by observing the geologic processes in action!

I graduated from U.T. in 1977 and went to work at Sohio Petroleum Co. in Houston. After three years there, I became an independent, and have been since. I’ve generated drilling prospects when I could, consulted when I had to, sat on hundreds of wells, enjoyed the good times, and endured the bad. Looking back, I realize that I love what I do because it is another treasure hunt, just not on Padre Island.

I am writing this from a logging truck in Goliad County. It’s 4 AM, I haven’t slept all night, and the log looks disappointing, but after 30 years, I’m having the time of my life!

Tommy Dubois
Geologist

After being born in Hoovertown, Texas, on April 7, 1926, my family moved to South Dallas, where I lived for my school years. I attended Forest Avenue High School and graduated in 1942 at the age of sixteen. I was always grateful for the fine profes- sional teaching staff in the Dallas schools. One of my teachers, a Latin teacher, knew I would be graduating early, so in the summer I rode the streetcar across town to her home so she could teach me my fourth year of Latin. This was certainly beyond the call of duty for her, but of great benefit to me. Many of my mentors at this time felt I should be a minister or an English teacher and took me for a visit to TCU. My family were members of the Christian Church, and, of course, Fort Worth was near Dallas. I did not enroll there, but I did enroll at John Tarleton Junior College at Arlington (now the University of Texas at Arlington). I had $25 and one suitcase when I enrolled. I was able to complete two years before I left to join the armed services.

After serving in the Navy in the South Pacific during World War II, I returned home and entered the University of Texas at Austin on the GI Bill. I was taking courses necessary for a Bachelor of Science Degree and did not have a designated major. I was enrolled in an English class studying Wordsworth and English poetry. I loved the Romantic poets and was reading Shelley and Keats, as well as Wordsworth. One day in class my professor asked me to read a passage from Wordsworth. While reading, my professor stopped me and asked, “Mr. Hoover, what is the significance of that?” I had never seen this passage before so I did not know that Wordsworth had used the same words in another poem. I earned a “C” in that class. At this point, I realized I needed to examine my grades and the requirements for a degree. I noted that I had made “A’s” in my science classes. I switched to geology and was employed by Humble Oil and Refining Company before my graduation in 1948. After initially being on a seismic crew, I was transferred to Houston. Shortly thereafter, I joined Texas Gulf Producing Company and later had the opportunity to come to Corpus Christi to join Pontiac Refining Company’s Exploration Department.

In 1956, I became an independent geologist and later founded Guaranty Petroleum Corporation as well as a few other companies. In 1963, I ran for the office of U.S. Representative for the 14th Congressional District as a Republican. It was a formidable challenge, and I ultimately lost. However, I felt I had made my point about the need for a two party system. We needed to have a choice.

After over fifty years as a geologist, I feel I made the right career choice. I can still pick up a book of poetry and enjoy reading the Romantic poets, but I think my destiny was to become an earth scientist. What’s more, I wouldn’t trade anything for my experiences and friendships in the oil patch.

Lawrence E. Hoover
Geologist

I was born on a small farm five miles south of Abilene, Kansas. After graduating from high school, I enrolled in geology at Kansas State University which is only fifty miles from Abilene. This made it easier to check on my mother who lived on the farm by herself. My father passed away when I was a fresh- man in high school.

My high school counselor, after reviewing my grades, suggested that I may want to stay on the farm. I guess my grades were somewhat affected by my interest in sports, the fairer sex, and also by the fact that there were chores to be done after school, milking cows, etc. I took my coun- selors suggestion as a challenge, so on to Kansas State I went. My freshman year was difficult since I had to learn what I should have during four years of high school. My grade average rapidly improved after the first year of college. Upon graduation, I went to work for Pan American Petroleum Corporation in south Louisiana where I worked for one year before returning to Kansas State to do graduate work. I was fortunate enough to get a Master’s Degree in ten months with excellent grades.

Upon receiving my Master’s Degree, I returned to Abilene to visit with my high school counselor. I showed him my good grades and Master’s Diploma, thanked him and suggested that he may want to take up farming.

I enrolled in Geology because it was fascinating seeing formation outcrops exposed on the surface and road cuts. A trip or two to Colorado and wondering how those wonderful mountains were formed heightened my interest in Geology. The real clincher, however, was when my older brother and I passed an oil rig on a trip to Wichita, Kansas. He pointed out several cars at the rig location. Among those, mostly older cars, was a new Cadillac. My brother told me that car belonged to a geologist. I decided right then and there that I wanted to be one of those guys. It was only after I graduated from Kansas State that he told me the Cadillac really belonged to the tool pusher.

Paul Strunk - Geologist

I was raised in northern New Jersey and was the fifth-borne son of a very successful machine shop owner . Both my Mom and Dad instilled in me and all four of my brothers at an early age that there’s no such word as “can’t “ in the Moherek vocabulary and that the world was my “oyster” where I could achieve anything I wanted - if I put my mind to it. Of course having an older brother hand me a simple rock collection when I was a kid al- ways fascinated me and first planted the thoughts that rocks were cool . It wasn’t really until my sophomore year in college at Rutgers University back in 1972 that I decided to major in Geology. Soon thereafter my long-term goal at that time was to achieve a PhD in Marine Geology and study marine sediments because I simply loved the ocean and always believed our seven seas that occupy the majority of our precious planet were (and still are) nearly totally unexplored. Also picking geology as a major was an easy choice because I not only liked the science but also quickly achieved high grades at the same time.. Having grown up in northeastern New Jersey within the metropolitan NY area I lived near some interesting outcrops of what I now know are Eastern Appalachian basin & range Tertiary red sandstones on top of a granite basement that form the modern-day mountainous part of northwestern N.J. where I first learned to fish in the inter-mountain lakes. Fishing is much like oil & gas exploration in the sense one has to explore a lake, stream or body of water to find the prize – the fish or in our business - the oil & gas. So two of my favorite pastimes – fishing and science were combined in the field of geology and a natural by-product of such a combination was to enter the industry as an exploration geologist. I did this in 1977 when I formally joined Tenneco Oil in Houston working onshore in Texas RRC District 3 while being mentored by some of the most successful geologists I have ever known. What I learned early on from my mentors is to imagine without boundaries and explore without fear, and I was trained to find 5 MMBBLO equivalent or larger fields . At that time Tenneco, which was a major independent, installed a great educational program for newly hired students whereby my skills were rapidly enhanced by being sent to two petroleum schools per year ( seismic applications, petroleum engineering, electric log evaluation, prospect economics, etc.) while learning back at the office the basic exploration practices of mapping, isopaching , interpreting 2D seismic , and very importantly applying the geologic concepts I learned at both Rutgers and Texas A & M University where I received my M. S. Degree in Geological Oceanography in 1977.

I worked at Tenneco until 1980 when I joined Gulfstream Petroleum, which was an active little independent in north Houston that drilled over 200 wells in the companies’ ten year life. Upon the sale of Gulfstreams’ assets in 1987 after prices crashed and investment capital dried up I like many others hung my own shingle out, Am-Tex Resources and successfully generated and sold Gulf Coast prospects while under various retainers with companies like Hanson Minerals, Bass Enterprises, Yuma Petroleum and individual investors. In 1997 I accepted a senior explorationist position with Tesoro in San Antonio, Texas where I worked until Tesoro was bought out by EEX Corporation and then subsequently acquired by Newfield Exploration. Upon being offered a transfer back to Houston with Newfield I heard that Suemaur had a senior explorationist position open, so I decided to weight anchor here in Corpus Christi, and I’m glad I did. That was not too difficult a decision since I love to fish as well as explore!

My advice to all college students that are majoring in geology and contemplating a job as a petroleum geologist is to start thinking “exploration” in your every class. Seek out the principles of stratigraphy-modern day depositional systems be they sandstone or carbonate and visualize the facies in 3D that you will be exploring in the future. Concentrate on the mineralogies and the permeabilities that make up the reservoir rocks you will be drilling in and very importantly learn to construct accurate maps that tell the geologic story beneath your prospects. Finally pursue computer aided seismic mapping, courses in geophysics and learn attribute techniques that can help you lower the economic risks in your exploration efforts. Do this and you too will become a successful geologist.

Tony Moherek
VP Exploration—Suemaur Exploration
and Production LLC

I was born the last of five siblings, in Houston, Texas in 1932, in the depth of the Great Depression. My father had become a successful building contractor whose early credits had included working on the Panama Canal. Like many others, he lost everything he had gained and accumulated in the Crash of ‘29. On the upswing, he was a construction foreman on the Tower of an institution I later learned to call “t.u.”, completed in 1939. His fortitude and resilience in the face of loss carried us through the Depression, and taught me a life lesson that would serve well anyone interested in the boom and bust business of oil – a lesson which I have since relearned a time or two for myself.

I wish I could say that it was my being among all those Houston Oil Men that led me to choose Geology as my life’s work, but that was not quite the case. My closest association with oil growing up occurred on D-Day, 1944, when a friend and I spent the day walking down a pipeline through a swamp in Old Ocean Field, carrying our fishing rods. The only “oil people” I knew were refinery workers and machinists at Hughes Tool and Reed Roller Bit, though I was familiar with the sight of the many wooden oil derricks with their gas flares lighting up the area around South Houston and Friendswood Fields. Growing up in swampy Houston, I can hardly even claim to have seen a hard rock in its native setting in my childhood.

I learned an appreciation for formal education both from my father, whose own formal education only reached the 6th grade, and on the job at a paint manufacturing company, one of whose employees had an Engineering degree and was the most financially successful man I had yet encountered. In 1950 I was 17 graduating from Houston Milby High School and planning to follow my sisters to Rice Institute to major in Pre-Med or Engineering, when I had this realization that if I went to Rice I’d have to live at home. With that thought, I immediately made arrangements to enter The Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (now Texas A&M University). My exposure to various fields of study had been limited, but I enjoyed science and especially biology, and was at ease with math, so I decided to major in Basic Engineering.

Now that we were at A&M, my roommate Leon Gerlich (who was a close boyhood friend) was also an engineering major. We talked continuously about what we really wanted to study and become. His uncle who was a “landman” (whatever that was) suggested that we might consider majoring in Geology.

After studying the catalogs and nosing around I discovered that A&M offered a degree in Geological Engineering. I could change majors and not lose any credits, and as a bonus (to my way of thinking) my course load by necessity would be filled up with Petroleum and other Engineering courses and I would not have to take a lot of liberal arts courses. So that is what I chose.

The first practicing Geologist I was privileged to hear was Michael Halbouty, who addressed the A&M Geology Club that Fall. He was a dynamic Geologist, a successful oil man, and a great motivator, and in later years a personal friend. Mr. Halbouty conveyed an exuberance and satisfaction about his profession that reached and resonated within me. After his speech I knew what I would do with my own life and career.

Photo—Win Sexton and his college roommate Leon Gerlich

Geologist—Win Sexton

Being born and raised in Carrizo Springs, oil runs through my veins. My start into the oil and gas indus- try was at a very young age. My father, T.V. Cabasos, was an operator on a workover rig and would take my brother and me on weekends to roam the outdoors. My first paying job was when I was ten years old, and I helped a contract pumper/guager, Woody Nobles. My pay was $1 a day, and all I could eat.

At the age of six- teen, I started to work rigs on weekends and summers. One particular hot summer I was working on the floor and turned to my father and asked, “Who is that guy that just stays inside his air conditioned truck?” My Dad told me, “He is the geologist.” I re- member that day clearly.

I had always told my Mother, Luvina Cabasos, that I would go to college and become a math teacher. When I was at Southwest Texas Junior College in Uvalde, Texas, I excelled in Chemistry and Physics and started to lean toward the sciences. After two years I decided to tell my parents that I was dropping my math teacher plans and would be going to Texas A&I in Kingsville to study geology.

That very day I walked into the Core Lab office in Carrizo Springs and asked for a summer job. The Manager was Terry Casey, and he hired my on the spot. All that summer we worked on the Tar Sand of Southwest Texas. I had an “open door policy.” Anytime I was in town and wanted to work I could.

I started full time employment with Core Lab on January 1, 1982 in Carrizo Springs and was there until the lab closed on March 31, 1986. I was transferred to the Corpus Christi lab. By November 1988, I was in charge of the Corpus Christi operation and took on as much responsibilities as I could.

Some of the responsibilities I took on were environmental drilling (the Juan One), environmental sampling, and constructing three portable well site core analysis units. I even got involved with underground gasoline storage tank testing. In 1991 the Federal Tight Gas Law made life a lot easier. Many companies were taking whole core, and I was able to increase our staff to handle upwards of 500 feet of conventional core per month and untold number of percussion sidewall samples. South Texas clients were good to Core Lab.

From 1996 to 2000, I was in charge of Business Development for the Gulf Coast (Texas and Louisiana) and Northern Mexico. In 1999 and 2000, Core Lab bought two of our competitors in Houston, and I was offered the Sales Manager’s job in Houston, which I turned down. I am, and have always been, a service orientated person, and I opted to remain in the Corpus Christi lab.

Juan Cabasos—Lab Supervisor

I grew up in East New Orleans on landfill over a swamp. Our street was scheduled for paving when I was in the third grade, and my father and the rest of the cheap skates on the street decided not to pay what the city fathers allocated as their legitimate street paving costs. Our street was then filled with red sand and gravel instead of oyster shell like every other single unpaved street in the city.

It turns out that this gravel came from the Pleistocene Citronelle Formation from across Lake Ponchatrain, which was a glacial outwash fan sheet shed from sources in Indiana, Ohio & Kentucky. Growing up, I was a finder and collector. I found four leaf clovers (come see the one in my office for scientific good luck on wells). One day, after a torrential rain, the gravel and sand was washed. I looked in the gravel and found all these “bones” and round things with holes in them. Another kid, David Hill, said, “Those aren’t bones. Those are corals and the other things are crinoid stems, they’re fossils.” His Dad was a government meteorologist whose hobby was rocks and minerals. Suddenly, I was a rock hound in a state with no rocks. I checked out every book on rocks and fossils and determined to be a fossil finder, like Roy Chapman Andrews.

When I was 13 my Dad took me on the dream vacation for a fossil hunter in New Orleans — Texas!! We went to every single place the guidebook said there were fossils. Crinoids, echinoids, pelecypods, steinkerns—I collected them all and still have them to this day.

In high school the worst teacher there, was a geologist that couldn’t get a job in the 60’s, so he became a chemistry teacher. He had a wig and everyone made fun of him. That’s when I knew I could not be a geologist, because everyone would call me a Mr. Walker. Instead I majored in math, because it was conceptually easy for me (I still can’t do math— abstraction and concepts are different). Along the way I was taking all the geology courses I could without being a major. Finally, as a sophomore at LSU, sitting in a differential equation class, full of eggheads with slipsticks, I though “What the hell am I doing here with all these dingdongs?” I changed my major to geology and the department gave me a Getty Oil Scholarship. Getty Oil? Not me, I’m going to be a paleontologist and find fossils. At LSU, two professors of sedimentology, Dr. Donald Lowe (now at Stanford) and Dr. Clyde Moore got me interested in sand and limestone (after all that’s where the fossils are). Before and after field camp in Colorado, I followed Dr. Lowe to measure Cambrian sand outcrops. I fell in love with sand and with the great outdoors of Colorado. New plan—I could be a field geologist forever.

Getty Oil offered me a job, I turned it down. After graduation from LSU, I got the dream job—field asst. USGS, Gunnison, Co. The way it works is — every single day that is a good day in the summer you go out in the field unless it’s a federal holiday. So I had only the fourth of July off. Of course, I got to walk through the scrub oak, the swampy lowland valleys with the mosquitoes and biting flies where all the bears were, the full time guys got the good jobs — mountain meadows with wildflowers and hummingbirds. Also, I got exciting rides in whirlybirds with no doors with former Air America pilots. I went on horse back for 5 days on pack trips (talk about saddle sore) and nearly drowned in a kayak on Gunnison River white water. I got the field geology thing out of my system.

At UT, I studied sandstone in earnest and was awarded another Getty Oil scholarship, I began thinking something about fate and Getty Oil. UT made me want to make maps. So when the Getty job came again, I decided the oil business was where I could make maps. Who knew you could also make good money doing it? And I still collect fossils.

Frank Cornish - Geologist

I was born in 1928, the youngest of four. Dad was a mechanical engineer with the Hartford Company and mother was a nurse.

We burned coal in San Antonio in the 1930’s and as soon as I was old enough, I became acquainted with a coal scuttle. At a tender young age, I became aware that these black, smear looking chunks of coal were completely filled with fern imprints. Dad was always getting after me for breaking up the coal. I’d be cleaving chunks of coal into pieces in an effort to see what had been preserved within it. Kids are curious, and I was no different.

How did these fern prints get there? Why did the water well at Roosevelt Park always smell like rotten eggs? Where did all the gas come from that fueled the oil well flares that lit the skies around Corpus Christi, Refugio and Pearsall? Where did all the seashells come from this far from the salt water/ Where did all this fools gold (pyrite) and calcite come from? My school teacher always told us that the Lord took only six days to create the world. Now just how can it take millions of years to form stalactites and stalagmites? Even on grandmother’s farm in Grayson County the hills seemed to have an abundance of shark’s teeth. When did the ocean cover this land? These are questions (among many others) that come to mind of a 10 year old.

During the mid ‘30’s, friends visited and talked about oil being found in and around their dirt farms near Refugio. It did not seem long before they became rich friends due to the oil discovered on their lands.

Mr. John J. O’Brien, schoolmate of my dad, complained “these darn oil wells and trucks are crowding my cattle operations—it’s just not the same! It smells and they ruin the roads.” Mother spoke of oil helping Mary Clair Hurd Bauer and the Reilly's’. I remember the day when Mrs. Reilly came by after oil was discovered on her property, in the longest, biggest black Buick automobile that a 7 year old had ever seen—she gave me a bright shiny silver dollar. Again, another connection made between oil, geology, and money.

Dad’s profession took him many places in South Texas, and he frequently took me along and this afforded my exposure to many areas within 150 miles of San Antonio hill country down to the Texas Gulf Coast. I never knew that the Gulf of Mexico covered all of South Texas at one time. Some years later, the question of how, where, when and why did these geological type things happen, began to make sense. It seemed as one question was answered, another door to new questions was opened. Frontiers! I suppose that the field of Geology, while solving one riddle, only leads to more questions and challenges.

With all of these unanswered questions lodged in my mush filled cranium, by the time it came to enroll in college, having been exposed to only engineers, mechanical and civil all my life it seemed I should be an engineer. Civil had a nice ring to it—I could build roads and bridges and do surveying out in the open. So off to Texas A&M to pursue Civil Engineering. However, after a year or so, I was drawn to the Geology Building at Texas A&M, which was shared with the Petroleum School.. The more I hung around the Geology Building, the more exciting the study of geology became as it began to answer a lot of youthful questions. So after a short while, I made the switch to the exciting world of geology. And that’s a love affair that still persists. It still presents challenging problems and fun things about this wonderful, blue orb we live on and make a living at the same time.

J.V. McCullough - Geologist

I grew up in Corpus Christi and attended Menger Elementary, Wynn Seale Junior High School and Corpus Christi High School (now Miller High School). We lived about five blocks from where Ray High School was being built. It was not completed, so I had to hitch a ride across town and back every day.
In those days most of the prominent citizens were in the oil and gas business. In high school I had a friend whose father was Vice President of Chicago Corporation. The Chicago Corporation had production on the Agua Dulce Field and other fields in South Texas. We got to ride in the company plane when they flew to pick up executives or associates.
My mother had several relatives that were in the oil business. Her uncle was a landman in Houston. One of her cousins was a geologist and another was a petroleum engineer. Her aunt was married to a man that was an executive with Mene Grade Oil Company (a subsidiary of Gulf Oil), and they lived in Venezuela for twenty years. In view of this I was drawn to a career in the oil business. There appeared to be two avenues to achieve a career in the oil business. One was geology and the other was a petroleum engineer..
I received a course catalog from Texas A&M, and I found that I could get both degrees in five years. I did not know which was best, so I decided to take both! After graduation with the two degrees, I decided that I wanted to get a Masters. Half way through the Masters program in Petroleum Engineering, I decided that I really wanted to be a Geologist. I was too far along to change, so I attained my Masters in Petroleum Engineering.
After graduation I went to work for Stanolind Oil and Gas Company as a junior geologist in Lafayette, Louisiana for a year before I went into the Army as a Second Lieutenant in field artillery. After my tour of duty, I decided to return to Corpus Christi. I became associated with Lawrence Ethridge and RK Taylor who were independent operators. They both retired after two years, and I went completely on my own. I originated drilling prospects and turned them for cash and an override. After a few years, I set up Miramar Petroleum to drill and operate wells with a working interest. Although Miramar drills and operates wells in which I own an interest, the bulk of my work is in geology.

John Clanton - Geologist

My introduction to the oil and gas industry came at a very early age, I was born in Hebbronville, Texas where my father was store manager for the National Supply Company. We were your typical “oil field trash” family in that we were always subject to moving at a moments notice, always looking for the next oil boom.
I made many trips to various south Texas oil wells with my father delivering equipment to the drilling rigs, calling on customers, etc. The majority of our trips were on dirt roads since the only paved road was between Hebbronville and Laredo. Most of the roads in the area were ranch roads. The cars were fitted with large balloon tires, which made driving on sand easier—but nothing in those days was easy.
As a young kid, I saw billions of cubic feet of gas being flared to the atmosphere. American needed the oil for the war effort, and there was limited gas gathering systems in the area. At night it seemed as if the world was on fire. From my bed I could see the flares from the O’Hearn Field. Little did I know that somewhere out there was a geologist picking drilling locations—this knowledge was yet to come.
My family relocated to Corpus Christi in the middle 1940’s.
On one of my many trips with my dad, we passed a couple of rigs working between Robstown and Corpus Christi. He said, “you know, it takes a geologist to tell the drillers where to drill. You might want to give that a try in college.” So, in 1953 I enrolled in Del Mar College and took my first geology class.
Everyone needs a few breaks in life, I got my first big break while attending Del Mar College—I happened to walk by the placement office and noticed a posting for an oil and gas draftsman. I had no idea what a draftsman was or what they did. The man to see was Mr. Ray M. Low, the Getty Oil Company Geophysical Manager for South Texas. After a short interview, Mr. Lowe gave me a job for the summer, and that summer job started me down the road to a 52 year career in the oil and gas business.
The following summer I worked for Getty in Lafayette, Louisiana and the summer after that, I worked in Tyler, Texas for Getty. In 1958, I graduated from TCU with a BS in Geology and went to work for Getty fulltime in Houston, Texas.
After working there a year, I was transferred to Midland, Texas where I spent 14 years. Then I was transferred back to Houston as the Chief Geologist of the southern division. I left Getty after 25 years and relocated to Corpus Christi, Texas to work for Edwin L. Cox Oil and Gas as the division manager and stayed there for 10 years. The past 17 years I have spent working as an independent geologist.
It has been a long, dusty road from the kid watching the gas flares in Hebbronville to where I am today. The 52 years I’ve spent in the business has been quite a trip, and I’ve met some really great people and made lots of lasting friendships. As a geologist, one of the great thrills of my career was doing the wellsite geology and development work on the Vacuum Abo Field in Lee County, New Mexico—I had the privilege to log the discovery well that found 100 million barrels of oil!
My advice to young folk today starting a career in geology would be to follow your heart, make your breaks and develop a relationship with a mentor.

Jerry Clark - Geologist

I was always good at math and science. However, when I was in elementary school a teacher put me in a math class one grade level ahead where I floundered. At that point I was labeled as having a “poor” math aptitude and ended up in related math in high school. High school held very little interest for me, but I loved high school biology, where I excelled. I remember my biology teacher would put little comments on my test papers such as “pretty good for a girl.” After my junior year in high school I dropped out. It was the summer of 1969, and yes I do remember it. At age 21 I met my husband while I was working as a secretary for the city of Houston Health Department. I used to try to impress people by telling them that I was just working for a while and intended to go to college. My husband believed it, and literally dragged me to sign up for college courses at Houston Community College. Not only did my husband spark a life long love of learning, but he also fostered a love for the outdoors; particularly backpacking. This is something we still enjoy together today, but the rules have changed as I now have to carry my own rocks.
When I earned enough course credits from Houston Community college we transferred to Stephen F. Austin in Nacogdoches. During my first semester I declared elementary education as a major. I had to have a science credit, so the first semester I took geology and introduction to elementary education. I made an A in geology and a C in education. I fell in love with the science of geology, and it’s a passion that continues today. Despite the C in the education course I graduated magna cum laude, and went on to complete my MS in geology. Would I do this again? Without question I would. There is nothing quite like sitting in a logging truck and seeing a piece of the earth that no one else has seen before. There is nothing quite like the thrill of standing on a rig floor and watching the gas meter on the FT chamber spin round and round, and it’s all because you had an idea.

Gloria Sprague - Geologist

Coming from a first generation family with no professionals or college graduates on either side except for an aunt and a cousin who were registered nurses, I had no inkling of what college was all about or any thought of study beyond high school. We lived in a grocery store and my sole ambition was to own and operate a modern facility with my dad.
However, some sense deep within my makeup made me very interested in oil. There were no oil fields near Del Rio, Texas where I was born and raised. There was an oil pipeline from West Texas ending at a tank farm near the railroad. We knew about this because in the early 30’s a tornado destroyed many of the tanks. I do remember seeing an oil derrick near the highway on one of our trips to San Antonio and being very excited and curious about it.
In 1948 when I graduated from high school, my dad offered to loan me the money to attend college if I would pay it back after graduation so that my younger siblings would also have the opportunity. I countered with the idea that he build a new modern store across the street where I could become a merchant. So I went to work full time in the family business. After a couple of months he informed me that he had never borrowed money and wasn’t inclined to do so now in order to build a store, and further that the chain stores were coming, and we would be wiped out. He also suggested that with my persistence I should become a lawyer.
A very exciting thing happened during my time as a grocery clerk. Philips Petroleum Co. decided to shoot a regional seismic survey designed to explore for the Ellenburger below the metamorphic ridge running along the west end of the Balcones Fault line. The crew was headquartered in Del Rio, and one of the party chiefs began trading at our store. Needless to say this event re-kindled my curiosity and interest in oil, and I constantly questioned him about the subject when he was buying groceries.
Finally one day he said “son if you want to get into the oil business and have it made be a Geologist.” At that moment I knew that I was gong to be a geologist. I went back to my dad and asked him if he would still loan me money, even though I did not intend to become a lawyer. He was disappointed and pointed out that it would probably take me a lot longer to pay him back and thus delay the opportunities for my siblings to also attend college, but he agreed. I enrolled at St. Edwards University for the fall semester of 1949 with the understanding that I could get a degree in geology. However by mid-term I realized they could not offer such a degree and transferred to Texas A&M in the fall of 1950, and I received my B.S. in geology in May of 1953. I spent the next three years flying fighter jets for the USAF, and in 1956 I went back to A&M and completed my studies and thesis for a Master of Science Degree. Finally in 1958 my goal was reached when I went to work for The Texas Company in Corpus Christi as a junior Geologist.

Daniel A. Pedrotti—Geologist

My parents did not go to college, and I was always apprehensive of going myself, but I did decide to go. I picked the University of Oklahoma because Oklahoma was in the center of the country.
After almost flunking out my freshman year (0.87 grade point second semester), I went to my guidance counselor for advice. He showed me a listing of his students and their grade point averages, and he told me that I was not the caliber of student he advised—he recommended I go to a different counselor. That was disheartening, but the new counselor reviewed by high school grades and said “well, you aren’t a dummy.” He suggested I take a variety of courses and maybe something would get my attention.
So, after barely being able to stay in school, I signed up for 19 hours – History of Art, Accounting, Invertebrate Zoology, English Literature, Geology, and Aviation (since my father was a pilot). I got my first A in college— Geology (B’s in all the others and quadrupled my grade point to 3.65), and I called by mother and told her I was going to be a Geologist!
I watched the Chevron interviewer circle my F in calculus and draw a line down to the A in calculus a few semesters later. That example might be an indication of how I might do if I ever drilled a dry hole.
Lessons learned: get advice from a higher power, learn from your mistakes and Don’t give up.

Owen Hopkins – Geologist

Having graduated a half a year early from Santa Barbara High School in California (1966) I immediately started school at Santa Barbara City College, a local junior college. I thought I was cool going to a school that allowed you to smoke in the student union. Well, after a couple of semesters studying mostly how to party (it was California after all in the late sixties), I found out I did not like school and school did not like me.
I spent the next few years traveling and working at whatever job I could get to make the most money with as little responsibility as possible. I traveled in Europe and lived back east for a year.
With a few years of working at almost anything (car wash, waiter, and small engine mechanic) under my belt, I decided to try school again. Thinking that it probably was my last chance to make it in society I moved back to Santa Barbara, California, and I started back to school at Santa Barbara City College. Ah yes, what to take? Strangely enough I have to credit my mother for suggesting a geology class. She said that the class took a week long field trip, camping out and looking at rocks each semester. Now fate took over, I took interesting and eye opening classes from Mr. Dave Williams, Dr. Bob Gray and Dr. Ralph Higgins geologists who love camping and looking at rocks. I continued my education and love of geology at the University of California at Santa Barbara and the University of Texas at Arlington.
In school I met great teachers and fellow students who have become life long friends, and we still like camping and looking at rocks.

Sebastian Wiedmann - Geologist

My parents did not go to college, but all my brothers, sisters and I heard growing up was “you kids are going to college.” How do you pick what you want to do for the rest of your life when you are 18 years old? The one thing that I really enjoyed doing as a kid was camping and hiking in the great outdoors, but how do you make a career out of that? My dad worked for Exxon and rode in a carpool with four engineers. Anytime they were over at the house I would ask them about college and their jobs, and they would say “study hard and become an engineer, it’s a great career!”
So after high school graduation, I went off to the University of Texas to “become a petroleum engineer and have a great career.” Well, that was fine until differential equations math class. By that time I had already taken an introduction to geology class and found it interesting. It made me think back to the days I spent in Boy Scouts, camping and hiking. I thought it would be great to have a job where you were outside all the time, hiking in the mountains and making maps. So I switched my major to Geology. Even though I do not spend all my time in the outdoors, I did end up with a great career and a job I truly enjoy!

Matt Franey
Geologist

I began my career in the oil patch as an engineer with Mobil oil after graduating from college with an electrical engineering degree. After several years, and several employers later, I decided I would go back to college in search of a new job career.
I chose petroleum geology as a profession because I heard that was where the big chips in the oil industry could be found, and the work was plentiful. I was told that it all started with the geologist that came up with an idea where oil and gas might be found. The geological idea gave a land man a job to get the minerals leased, then a lawyer a job to render a drill site title opinion, then a engineer to drill and complete the well, then a CPA to count the money, and on down stream to the rest of the world.
I went back to college a second time in 1982 at the age of twenty-seven, I graduated from college in 1984 with a bachelors degree and began my quest in my new geological profession. My first efforts started in Corpus Christi working for a number of independents. My dream of becoming independent myself didn’t take long because in 1986 I lost my job due to the drop in oil prices. That year I put my first geologic prospect together, and with the help of a free lease, sold the prospect for cash and an overriding royalty. We drilled my first discovery well, and I have been an independent geologist ever since.
After thirty years, I still believe petroleum geology, along with the thrill of the chase for oil and gas, to be a great profession.

Jeff Cobbs
Geologist