3. When attending International conferences, expect everything to be more formal. In particular, expect academicians to be somewhat more dogmatic. Allow time to develop collegial working relations, particularly with continental Europeans. It is easier to establish collegial relations with the British.
Chapter 9
Sinclair Research, Tulsa, OK (1960-1961)
The Sinclair Oil Company was founded in 1916 by Harry F. Sinclair and grew to be the seventh largest oil company in the USA at one time. It was primarily an exploration company. Harry Sinclair was a colorful gent and spent time in jail for his involvement in the Teapot Dome Scandal. The company was extremely conservative and risk adverse. Their exploration paradigm was the “hind tit” approach, namely, let someone make the initial discovery and then lease offset acreage if available. The company was acquired by ARCO in 1969.
Sinclair Research was formed during the 1950’s and individuals from the operating company were transferred to staff it. Their only PhD on staff when I interviewed was Bernie Rolfe who hired me. In 1960, when Glenn Visher and I were hired, it was as much of an accident as to fill a need. The operating company, applying for a loan from a major New York bank, was asked, “What is Sinclair doing in the way of expanding its research to find more oil and gas?” Sinclair management responded that they just hired two PhD’s, one from Yale and one from Northwestern. The loan was approved.
After returning to the USA, I called Bernie Rolfe to make arrangements to start work. We mutually agreed I should rent a car and drive to Tulsa. I did so and drove west. I arrived around 1:00 PM on September 15, 1960, reporting to Bernie. After filling out forms to get on the payroll, health insurance, and few other formalities, I was asked to attend a staff meeting that afternoon at 2:00 PM.
Bernie then took me to another building and introduced me to my manager, Robbie Robinson. Robbie and I quickly established rapport particularly because he earned both his BS and MS at the University of Nebraska. We discussed the KU and Nebraska athletic rivalries. I also asked Robbie about his experience in the petroleum industry and he told me he had spent time on a Sinclair geophysical crew in Louisiana before the lab was established. He was transferred three years before I arrived and completed work on classifying and identifying visual porosity in carbonate rocks.
Robbie then took me to a large room which I was to use as an office and lab. I shared it with Glenn S. Visher (BS, MS Cincinnati, PhD Northwestern, stratigraphy; Shell Oil, Sinclair Research, Univ. of Tulsa, BNJ Exploration). Glenn worked for Shell Oil and left because they did not transfer him to their research lab, despite assurances they would do so.
I then attended the staff meeting and was introduced to everyone, including a computer systems person, a geochemist (Bill “Jake” Jacobsen), a water chemist (Nat Sage), three palynologists (Ned Potter, Bill Meyers, and a tech), a regional geologist (John Rogers), Jim Westphal (geophysicist) and a petroleum engineer. Also present was Jimmy Johnson, the Vice President of Exploration Research. Jimmy was a geophysicist. Bernie Rolfe reported to him as manager of geological research. The meeting was chaired by George Fanshaw, president of the lab, and included another Vice President who was an engineer.
Fanshaw opened the meeting to announce that the lab would handle all in-house training. We had a month to get ready for the first course. Assignments were given and because I had just arrived, Fanshaw asked if I could prepare a presentation. I offered to give a two-hour talk on the application of sedimentary structures to determining environments of deposition. Fanshaw commented that this would be new and encouraged me to put it together
Afterwards, Bernie and Robbie and I went to Bernie’s office. They assigned me to work on the reservoir sedimentology of the Minnelusa Formation (Permian) of eastern Wyoming and western North Dakota. At Sinclair Research, most project work was contract work for the operations division. The Casper, WY, office requested this project and funded it. I was the lead geologist and would coordinate with Chuck Tenney in Casper. During the previous summer, Chuck, Robbie, and John Rogers collected samples and thin sections were cut. I was first to complete a petrographic study, point counting all four hundred thin sections (all 400 samples were quartz arenites as per Bob Folk’s classification). Bernie and I were to fly to Casper in late October to meet Tenney and do reconnaissance field work, because I also was scheduled to give a paper at the GSA in Denver beforehand. I was to return next summer to continue detailed field work.
Bernie (BS CUNY; PhD Penn State; clay mineralogy; Cities Services Research, Sinclair Research, Consultant) then brought up something else. He explained Robbie did not have a PhD and asked if it would be a problem for me to have Robbie as my supervisor. I explained that Robbie had more experience in the oil industry than me. Robbie and I agreed he would train me about the oil business and I would be his resource person in areas where he wanted more expertise.
Bernie was a tough individual. He grew up in the streets of New York City and was drafted into the US Army. He saw action in the Battle of Bulge and survived without injury. The GI Bill provided him with the opportunity to receive a university education and achieve a better life. However, the hard street side occasionally flared and one had to be careful with him. He also liked calling me “kid” because I was the youngest of the professional research staff.
Sinclair Research’s facilities were located on the northwest side of Tulsa in the old Pan Am Research Lab across the street from the Carter Oil Research Lab. When Pan Am built a new lab in South Tulsa, they tried to sell the old lab but no buyer was forthcoming. Pan Am finally donated it to the University of Tulsa who rented the space to Sinclair. We were located in four buildings, an administrative building with a small library, a core storage building, a maintenance building for trucks and equipment, and a lab building. My office was in the lab building.
My office served another function. It was where the only coffee pot in the lab building was located. There was no refrigerator. Only black coffee was available. When tasting my first cup, I discovered its unique taste. It was Luzianne Chicory coffee. When Jake, Robbie, Jimmy Johnson, and John Rogers were working in Louisiana on geophysical crews they acquired a taste for it. They assured me that I would too.
I spent two nights at a nearby motel and searched for a furnished apartment. After finding one and moving in, I returned the car to the rental agency and had no car. Jacobsen lived nearby and picked me up every morning and took me home at night. Grocery stores were in walking distance so I could manage until I bought a car.
After receiving my first paycheck and opening a local bank account, I bought a 1954 Ford station wagon. My bank provided a loan. I planned to camp out on weekends if I wanted to see something different and used it to do some extracurricular field work in the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas and Oklahoma that fall.
Slowly, I began work on the Minnelusa and prepared my two-hour lecture for their October short course. We also offered the course in November and December. The October course was for regional managers and Sinclair housed them at a motel with its own private club and a conference room. In Oklahoma, the only way to buy liquor was from a state store and drink at home or be a member of a private club. The motel provided club membership for its guests and during the training sessions, for Sinclair instructors.
Bernie suggested I stay each evening and become better acquainted with the regional managers, even joining them for dinner. That enlarged my network into the company. I also obtained a close-up view of what happened to career geologists at Sinclair, how it influenced their lives, their attitudes, their politics, and their morale. It was a mixed picture.
I presented my lecture the first afternoon of the course. During the middle of it, an older gentleman appeared at the door and Bernie went outside the room to talk with him. I continued and they returned. During
