Rocknocker: A Geologist’s Memoir. George Devries Klein
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with their pop guns in bed.” Hunting season started next morning.
After breakfast, we drove into a box canyon as the sun rose. It snowed overnight and it was beautiful. I suggested we stop and examine an outcrop on the canyon wall. On opening our car doors, shot guns fired away and the noise echoed around the box canyon. Bernie said, “Sorry George, let’s get out of here. This is worse than the Battle of the Bulge.”
We spent two days in the field examining outcrops. We heard gunfire all day. At night, the hunters were getting tanked up at Ranch A but none bagged a deer.
On Sunday, we drove back to Casper. During the entire trip, Bernie and Chuck talked about other company people, their strengths, their foibles, their weaknesses, their intelligence, their ethics, and so on. I listened. Finally, Bernie said to me, “George, you must think we do nothing but gossip about everyone in the company.” After a non-committal response, Bernie said, “Look kid, you’re still wet behind the ears and new on the job. It’s a cold cruel world out there. And another thing, don’t believe this crap about company loyalty. They can fire you at will, and if you’re lucky, it might be with two week’s notice.”
I flew back to Denver, rented a car and drove to Boulder. I needed to read some theses at the University of Colorado that were relevant to my project. I also had dinner with Don Eicher and his wife. He had been at Colorado for two years teaching paleontology.
I flew back to Tulsa and returned to work.
By this time, I became better acquainted with Glenn Visher. Glenn was articulate and loved putting people down and arguing with them. I noticed that others in the lab were not that appreciative of his style. I didn’t mind the arguments, but did mind some of his acerbic comments. While at Shell, he completed their training program and was trying to build research on one aspect, namely the vertical sequence concept of changes in grain size, sedimentary structures, well log shape and trend to characterize depositional environments. I reviewed his work and felt he was on to something, but it was a hard sell to the company. Moreover, there was concern that he used Shell proprietary data and this could lead to difficulties.
As I went over Glenn’s work, I realized I needed to review the literature of the present day Gulf Coastal Plain of the Gulf of Mexico. It was the incubator of predictive models of sedimentology of the 1960’s.
Around Thanksgiving, I reassessed my situation. I missed the academic environment and the freedom to pursue research of one’s own choice. I found Tulsa a disappointing place to live particularly because I was single and dating opportunities were few. Most of my age group or younger were married with families. All eligible women I met were divorced with at least two young children requiring a major adjustment. Tulsa was a great place to live if one had a wife and three or more children. It was also heavily church oriented, and although I joined the local Unitarian church with a young charismatic minister, single ladies were few. There weren’t many other attractions.
I met two great couples at the Unitarian church, Ken and Marge Ackley and Hugh and Grace Hay-Roe. Ken was regional exploration manager for Humble and grew up in west Texas, graduating from the University of Texas. Early in his career, Ken was assigned to the district office in Mattoon, IL. He met Marge there at church. She was teaching school in Mattoon after graduating from the University of Illinois. His knick-name for me was ‘Rocknocker.’ Ken explained that we were fellow rocknockers pounding on rocks to find oil and natural gas. Meeting the Ackley’s was one of the bright spots during my entire stay in Tulsa.
Hugh Hay-Roe (BSc, Univ. of Alberta; MS, PhD, Univ. of Texas @ Austin; Jersey Production Research, International Petroleum – Peru; Belco; private consultant; BPZ Energy) became a life-long friend. A Canadian, we developed a good friendship. After I left Tulsa, we saw less of each other but reconnected when I moved to Houston and I completed some spec work for BPZ Energy, and later when BPZ Energy asked me to help them with a book on Peruvian basins. Hugh is best known for writing columns and a book on proper geological writing.
Sinclair Research, in many respects, was a great training ground, but I kept looking for teaching positions. I applied for a two-year temporary position at the University of Wisconsin and had a memorable breakfast interview at the Denver GSA meeting with three people, including Louis M. Cline who was now chairman. They hired someone even younger and in their view, cheaper. They were unconvinced I’d take a 30% pay cut if the job was offered.
At Christmas, I arranged to take time off and make up the time working Saturdays for six weeks. During that vacation, I interviewed for a faculty appointment at Villanova University but knew it was a poor match. A year later, Ed Belt, who was Catholic, accepted a job there. I also drove to New Haven and met with John Sanders to assess the situation and my options.
During January, there were changes on the job. I was expected to put out “fire-drill” requests from the operating company and did so. The first involved a granite wash problem in the Permian basin. Bernie and I worked together and completed our report which was well received.
Robbie then told me that management wanted Glenn and I go in the field with Allen P. Bennison, Sinclair’s regional geologist, to get exposed to some of his ideas and places he had worked in southern Oklahoma and Arkansas. Bennison published a definitive paper on the Potato Hills of Southern Oklahoma and correctly recognized it as a window within an overthrust belt. I already spent some weekends in that area looking at the Stanley-Jackfork (Mississippian) and Atoka (Pennsylvania) turbidites which Lewis Cline described at the 1959 Pittsburgh GSA meeting. It was an opportunity to obtain background information and also thought it advisable that I work with the person who Sinclair’s management considered their regional tectonic guru.
Glenn was incensed. He said because he worked with great professors at Northwestern (Krumbein, Sloss, and Dapples) and because I completed coursework with John Rodgers at Yale, we did not need to be taught anything by Bennison. I told him I didn’t know enough about Bennison and welcomed a chance to go in the field.
I went on the trip. I did not agree completely with Bennison’s approach, but learned new geology and at least saw it through his eyes. Geology is a science based on experience and observation. This trip with Bennison was an opportunity to gain needed additional experience.
Moreover, I also used the trip as an opportunity to propose a project to Sinclair management and it was approved. It dealt with a regional sandstone petrographic study of the Stanley-Jackfork boundary, utilizing field samples and well samples. That gave me reasons to go into the field more often at company expense.
In February, Gerry Friedman told me he accepted a position at the University of Pittsburgh as an Associate Professor. Frederickson offered him a job. I congratulated him.
Also that month, I received an invitation from the Yale Alumni Association to attend a function at a local country club. I went more out of curiosity. I met a young couple, Don and Ruth Nelson. He graduated from Yale and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She graduated from Bryn Mawr and met Don while there.
Ruth’s father, a German immigrant, owned the Kaiser Oil company. It sold drill pipe and got into oil exploration using a unique approach. He noticed where his clients drilled from pipe deliveries. He determined from total pipe length how deep they drilled, which wells were successful, and which failed. He reasoned that companies spent a lot of money putting a prospect together so they knew oil might be recovered. He drilled offset wells from dry holes, discovered oil, and made millions doing so. I spent many a weekend with the Nelsons and their children.
During the middle of March, Jimmy Johnson called unexpectedly to let me know I passed my six month’s probationary period, had done well, and all colleagues were pleased with my work and interactions with them. My salary was raised from $9,000 (approximately $57,000 in 2009 dollars) per year to $9,500 (Approximately $60,500 in 2009 dollars) per year. He said he looked forward to a continued long-term working relationship with me at the lab.
As the spring continued, more “fire drill” requests were made. I wondered if I could ever finish any projects. Bernie called a meeting which Glenn, Robbie, John Rodgers, Bill Jacobsen, Nat Sage and I attended. Nat completed an eighth grade education but was a drinking buddy of Harry Sinclair, the company founder. When