Everette Lee DeGolyer
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Everette Lee DeGolyer (October 9, 1886 – December 14, 1956), was a prominent oil company executive, petroleum exploration
geophysicist Geophysics () is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and properties of Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. Geophysicists conduct investigations acros ...
and
philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...
in Dallas. He was known as "the founder of applied geophysics in the petroleum industry",Cutler J. Cleveland
DeGolyer, Everette Lee
in ''Encyclopedia of Earth''. Retrieved 2009-03-21.
and as "the father of American geophysics," and was a legendary collector of rare and often early edition books primarily in the fields of Southwestern history, railroads, law, geology, science and physics, and both English and American literature.


Early life

DeGolyer was born in a
sod house The sod house or soddy was a common alternative to the log cabin during frontier settlement of the Great Plains of North America in the 1800s and early 1900s. Primarily used at first for animal shelters, corrals, and fences, they came into use ...
on October 9, 1886, the son of John and Narcissa Kagy Huddle DeGolyer of
Greensburg, Kansas Greensburg is a city in and the county seat of Kiowa County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population of the city was 740. It is home to the world's largest hand-dug well. On the evening of May 4, 2007, Gre ...
. He was the eldest of three children. The family moved to
Joplin, Missouri Joplin is a city in Jasper County, Missouri, Jasper and Newton County, Missouri, Newton counties in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Missouri. The bulk of the city is in Jasper County, while the southern portion is in Newton County. J ...
, where Everette attended school while his father worked in lead and zinc mining. In 1901 the family moved to
Norman, Oklahoma Norman () is the List of municipalities in Oklahoma, 3rd most populous city in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, with a population of 128,026 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is the most populous city and the county seat of Clevel ...
, where Everette attended the University of Oklahoma preparatory school. He became a degree student at the
University of Oklahoma The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a Public university, public research university in Norman, Oklahoma, United States. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two territories became the ...
beginning in the fall of 1905. During the summers of 1906 through 1909, he worked for the
United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on Mar ...
(USGS) starting as a cook and working up to field assistant. A major responsibility of the USGS was making topographical maps and identifyinglocation of coal and
lignite Lignite (derived from Latin ''lignum'' meaning 'wood'), often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35% and is considered the lowest ...
deposits in Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana. While working for the USGS, he reported to Willard Hayes, a Ph.D. in geology, who was instrumental in hiring DeGolyer as a field geologist for Mexican Eagle Oil in 1909.


Mexican Eagle

In early 1910, DeGolyer began work as a field geologist for the
Mexican Eagle Petroleum Company Compañía Mexicana de Petróleo El Águila SA, (''El Águila'' for short, called in English the Mexican Eagle Oil Company or Mexican Eagle Petroleum Corporation, was a Mexican petroleum industry, oil company in the 20th century. The company, esta ...
(''El Aguila Oil Company''), remaining with the company primarily in Mexico through the Spring of 1914. While there, he was involved in the discoveries of the Potrero del Llano well No. 4 which came in as a gusher on December 27, 1910, at a depth of 1911 feet, and the heavily producing Las Naranjos field to the West around 1911. Producing approximately 130,000,000 barrels of oil in its eight years of operation, Potrero de Llano No. 4 established DeGolyer's early reputation, and slowly began to enhance the perceived value of geologists in the success of the petroleum industry, as it became the most productive well in the history of Mexican petroleum mining, and the most productive well in the Western Hemisphere for that period.Mount, Houston Faust II, ''Oilfield Revolutionary; The Career of Everette Lee Degolyer'', (2014), First Edition, Texas A and M University Press, College Station Texas, pgs. 38-39, 53-59, 70 Around eight months after beginning his work at Mexican Eagle Oil, DeGolyer married Nell Virginia Goodrich, then a teaching assistant and graduate of the University of Oklahoma, at 8:00 am on the morning of June 10, 1910, at her home in Norman, Oklahoma, returned with her to live briefly first in Tuxpan and later in Tampico, Mexico, around 30 miles North of his strike at Potrero del Llano. After his strike at Potrero, with strong support and encouragement from his wife Nell, who had formerly completed degrees there in Music and Philosophy, DeGolyer took a leave of absence to return to the University of Oklahoma to finish his A.B. degree in geology in early 1911. Completing his degree that summer, his bachelor's thesis addressed what he had learned surveying
anthracite Anthracite, also known as hard coal and black coal, is a hard, compact variety of coal that has a lustre (mineralogy)#Submetallic lustre, submetallic lustre. It has the highest carbon content, the fewest impurities, and the highest energy densit ...
deposits in Colorado.


Oil career

After leaving Mexico in 1914 due to American hostilities towards the Mexican government, DeGolyer took his first trip to Europe with his wife, meeting Weetman Pearson, his boss at Mexican Eagle Oil, in London. At the outbreak of
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
in August 1914, he was forced to leave Europe, unable to book a train to Spain as rail service had been discontinued. Traveling for Mexican Eagle Oil around 1915, he spent time prospecting oil provinces in Cuba including Havana and Pino Del Rio, and concluded that though oil could be found in Cuba, the probability of finding great oil fields on the Island was not good. He moved to
Montclair, New Jersey Montclair is a Township (New Jersey), township in Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Situated on the cliffs of the Watchung Mountains, Montclair is a commercial and cultural hub of North Jersey and a diverse ...
, to work in New York City in 1916 as an independent consultant, but primarily still functioning as a manager for Mexican Eagle Oil. In 1919, while working as a consultant to British entrepreneur Lord Cowdray, formerly known as Sir Weetman Pearson, an executive and part owner of Mexican Eagle Oil, DeGolyer negotiated the sale of the El Aguila (Mexican Eagle Oil Company) company to
Royal Dutch Shell Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company, headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New ...
. At the time, Mexican Eagle was valued at roughly $100 million. As predicted by DeGolyer, many of the remaining Mexican Eagle wells would be greatly depleted of oil in the remaining years.


Torsion balance method

As a geophysical consultant with the Rycade Corporation, he made the first torsion balance survey in the United States at the highly productive
Spindletop Spindletop is an oil field located in the southern portion of Beaumont, Texas, in the United States. The Spindletop dome was derived from the Louann Salt evaporite layer of the Jurassic geologic period. On January 10, 1901, a well at Spindlet ...
oilfield, near Beaumont in South Texas. An oilfield found by DeGolyer on behalf of Rycade in Southeast Texas's Nash salt dome was considered the first anywhere to be discovered using geophysics. The strike, on the flank of a salt dome in Texas's Southern Fort Bend, occurred on January 3, 1926, using the torsion balance method which utilized gravity to identify and map layers of underground rock strata, while roughly approximating their size, depth, and density. The Nash salt dome was first surveyed around February–March 1924.


Seismographic refraction

In 1920, DeGolyer organized the formation of the Amerada Petroleum Corporation (1920) for Lord Cowdray, rising to become general manager, president, and chairman from 1929 to 1932. In May 1925, DeGolyer helped to organize the oil exploration company Geophysical Research Corporation (GRC) as a subsidiary of the Rycade and Amerada Oil Companies. Geophysical Research Corporation would have offices in Bloomfield, two miles from DeGolyer's home in Montclaire. After DeGolyer hired Dr. John Clarence Karcher, GRC would act as a development lab for the refraction and reflection seismograph, under the direction of Karcher, who held the primary patents for the device. Karcher, who already held patents in reflection seismography, would hire an electrical engineer and physicist Eugene McDermott, and a staff of geophysicists who would use and continue to develop the seismograph to discover oil deposits. Between 1927 and 1932, under the leadership of DeGolyer on behalf of Rycade, the company found eleven new salt domes using seismographic refraction surveys. The seismographic refraction method attempted to plot and identify the composition of underground rock strata primarily by measuring the speed with which sound waves passed through them. The density of the rock strata and their distance from the surface could be approximated as well. DeGolyer was able to effectively locate salt domes with adjacent oil deposits using this method, aided by the fact that salt domes were considerably less heavy and dense than the rock strata that surrounded them, so sound waves passed through them quickly. DeGolyer left Amerada in 1932, but remained with Rycade, which was established to explore
salt dome A salt dome is a type of structural dome formed when salt (or other evaporite minerals) intrudes into overlying rocks in a process known as diapirism. Salt domes can have unique surface and subsurface structures, and they can be discovered us ...
oil deposits through 1941.


Reflection seismology

In 1930, while working for Amerada, but already active in the formation of Geophysical Service Inc., using the new
reflection seismology Reflection seismology (or seismic reflection) is a method of exploration geophysics that uses the principles of seismology to estimate the properties of the Earth's subsurface from reflection (physics), reflected seismic waves. The method requir ...
method he diagnosed a well location in Oklahoma's Seminole Plateau, then known as Edwards Field, which drilled at a depth of 4,216 feet, would initially produce 8000 barrels a day. The reflection technique used a controlled explosion of dynamite to aim sound waves at underground geological structures, using sensors at the surface to record the return speed of both the reflected waves and those that passed through the rock structures. The method mapped the geologic structures, often focusing on a subterranean dome, more accurately than both the more difficult-to-interpret torsion balance method or the former seismic refraction method which had proven effective in locating salt domes with adjacent petroleum deposits but was less effective in finding actual pools of oil. One source considered the Oklahoma well in Edward's Field, "the most important well drilled in America since Spindletop", and noted that after its discovery, as much as half of all wells found after that time would be found using reflection seismology. The use of the method eventually led to roughly one out of six wells striking oil, in contrast to former methods producing closer to one out of ten. DeGolyer left the Geophysical Research Corporation (GRC) which focused on
reflection seismology Reflection seismology (or seismic reflection) is a method of exploration geophysics that uses the principles of seismology to estimate the properties of the Earth's subsurface from reflection (physics), reflected seismic waves. The method requir ...
techniques originated by J. Clarence Karcher and Eugene McDermott in 1932 to move to
Dallas, Texas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...
, where both Karcher and McDermott would follow him. He moved to be with his new company Geophysical Service Inc., founded in 1930, headquartered in Dallas, and to be closer to the oil fields of Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana. Karcher would serve as the first president, with McDermott as vice-president.


GSI and other ventures

DeGolyer provided financial support for the 1930 establishment of GRC's successor, Geophysical Service Incorporated (GSI) which would make more extensive use of the superior reflection seismology method of detection. DeGolyer would acquire a fifty percent interest in GSI, which he would purchase for $100,000, though as he had yet to leave the board of Geophysical Research Corporation and Amerada, he did not initially fully divulge his involvement, and his part ownership was held in co-founder J.C. Karcher's name. Eugene McDermott, another former co-worker of DeGolyer's, was the other company founder. DeGolyer had been hoping to expand the scope of the Geophysical Research Corporation beyond its work with Amerada Oil, which largely focused on the American oil market in the Southwest when he decided to invest in Geophysical Service Inc. (GSI), a company he hoped could have a broader American domestic, and possibly international scope.


Texas Instruments

In 1951, GSI would become a subsidiary of the newly formed, highly successful electronics company
Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is an American multinational semiconductor company headquartered in Dallas, Texas. It is one of the top 10 semiconductor companies worldwide based on sales volume. The company's focus is on developing analog ...
, which had its beginning providing oil exploration services and producing seismographic oil exploration and sonar equipment as GSI. Under the leadership of DeGolyer's former coworker Eugene McDermott, who would serve first as president and then as a director from 1951 to 1973, and John Clarence Karcher as vice-president, Texas Instruments would eventually become the largest high technology employer in the Dallas area and one of the world's largest semiconductor manufacturers, but DeGoyler had divested his shares in GSI by that time.Lon Tinkle. Mr. De: A Biography of Everette Lee DeGolyer. In 1936 with Lewis MacNaughton, DeGolyer established the petroleum exploration consulting firm
DeGolyer and MacNaughton DeGolyer and MacNaughton is a petroleum consulting company based in Dallas, Texas, with offices in Houston, Buenos Aires, and Algiers. DeGolyer and MacNaughton was founded in 1936 by Everette Lee DeGolyer and Lewis MacNaughton. DeGolyer had f ...
and Core Laboratories to provide drilling core and fluids analysis. In January 1937, based on data from seismographic reflection, DeGolyer drilled a well near Patoka, Illinois which immediately produced 1,500 barrels a day. DeGolyer was also associated with the Atlatl Royalty Company from 1932 to 1950 and another oil company, the Felmont Corporation in 1934, which had more limited success. Felmont, in which he co-invested with banker and New Jersey neighbor Walter Case "never succeeded in finding the elephant oilfields that DeGolyer hoped", and he let the company go in 1939. In 1956 he established Isotopes, Incorporated to provide radioactive isotopes for oilfield and industrial purposes.


Government service


Petroleum Administration

During World War II, DeGolyer served as director of conservation with the Office of the Coordinator for National Defense from 1941 to 1942. He was assistant deputy of the Petroleum Administration for War in 1942–43.


Petroleum Reserves Corp

DeGolyer was in charge of the Petroleum Reserves Corporation (PRC) mission to the
Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...
in 1943 and 1944. Though he had known by 1940 that the Middle East would become the most critical area for petroleum production within twenty years, in the preliminary report he prepared for the Petroleum Reserves Corporation in February 1944, he wrote, "The center of gravity of world oil production is shifting from the Gulf-Caribbean area to the Middle-East-to the Persian Gulf Area-and is likely to continue to shift until it is firmly established in that area."


Building reserves

During this period, DeGolyer backed a proposal by PRC officer Harold L. Ickes that advocated spending $120 million of Federal funds to build a pipeline to send Kuwaiti and Saudi oil to the Mediterranean Sea for shipment. In exchange, the oil companies would "create a one billion barrel oil reserve that the United States military could purchase at a 25% discount from the market price", but the proposal ultimately failed due to opposition from American domestic oil companies, particularly smaller ones, that likely feared it would reduce the markets for their product and that the pipeline would require the American military to protect it. Small domestic oil producers criticized the plan as a "move toward fascism". During the
Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
, DeGolyer continued to stress the advantages of creating an oil reserve for the United States by increasing the purchase of foreign oil, but support for his position was blunted by domestic oil producers who most likely feared it would diminish the market for their product. Though in 1948, following a trend DeGolyer had predicted, the United States imported more petroleum than it exported, President
Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionar ...
in March 1959, with reluctance announced the requirement for restrictive quotas on oil imports into the United States, a move that ended DeGolyer's hopes of building a domestic reserve from imports. Though Eisenhower's initiation of quotas protected American oil producers, it also had the effect of more rapidly depleting domestic oil reserves rather than foreign sources, and on later reflection could be viewed as short-sighted in several respects.


Work with AEC

In 1948, under President Truman, he was made a member of the advisory committee on raw materials for the
United States Atomic Energy Commission The United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was an agency of the United States government established after World War II by the U.S. Congress to foster and control the peacetime development of atomic science and technology. President Harry ...
.


Professional society roles

He was president of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers in 1927, and was a director of the
American Petroleum Institute The American Petroleum Institute (API) is the largest U.S. trade association for the oil and natural gas industry. It claims to represent nearly 600 corporations involved in extraction of petroleum, production, oil refinery, refinement, pipeline ...
for twenty years.


Other ventures

In non-petroleum-related activities, DeGolyer was active in publishing, where he had a controlling interest and was chairman of the editorial board of the ''
Saturday Review of Literature ''Saturday Review'', previously ''The Saturday Review of Literature'', was an American weekly magazine established in 1924. Norman Cousins was the editor from 1940 to 1971. Under Cousins, it was described as "a compendium of reportage, essays a ...
''. DeGolyer was also associate editor of ''New Colophon'' and the '' Southwest Review''. A regent of the
Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...
, he was also a distinguished professor of geology at the
University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...
in 1940 and held seven honorary doctorates. DeGolyer served on numerous boards of directors, including the Texas Eastern Gas Transmission Corporation,
Dresser Industries Dresser Industries was a multinational corporation headquartered in Dallas, Texas, United States, which provided a wide range of technology, products, and services used for developing energy and natural resources. In 1998, Dresser merged with its ...
and the
Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials) was an American Railroad classes#Class I, Class I Rail transport, railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was oper ...
.


Honors

Though given posthumously, DeGolyer was the first recipient, in 1966, of the DeGolyer Distinguished Service Medal awarded by the
Society of Petroleum Engineers The Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit professional organization. SPE provides a worldwide forum for oil and natural gas exploration and production (E&P) professionals to exchange technical knowledge and best prac ...
(SPE), which recognizes "distinguished service to SPE, the profession of engineering and geology, and the petroleum industry." In 1941, he received the Lucas Medal of the American Institute of Mining Engineers (AIME), and in 1942 the
John Fritz Medal The John Fritz Medal has been awarded annually since 1902 by the American Association of Engineering Societies (AAES) for "outstanding scientific or industrial achievements". The medal was created for the 80th birthday of John Fritz, who lived bet ...
of the four Founder Engineering Societies. After having acted as a founder, he later received the Sidney Powers Memorial Award from the
American Association of Petroleum Geologists The American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) is one of the world's largest professional geological societies with about 17,000 members across 129 countries. The AAPG works to "advance the science of geology, especially as it relates to ...
in 1950. He felt particularly fulfilled by his 1951 election to the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
and his subsequent installation at
Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
. Everette L. DeGolyer Elementary School in Dallas, located at 3453 Flair Drive, is named after DeGolyer.


Later life and philanthropic activities

The DeGolyer Library at
Southern Methodist University Southern Methodist University (SMU) is a Private university, private research university in Dallas, Texas, United States, with a satellite campus in Taos County, New Mexico. SMU was founded on April 17, 1911, by the Methodist Episcopal Church, ...
was established in 1957 by gifts from DeGolyer and his wife, Nell, and from
bequest A devise is the act of giving real property by will, traditionally referring to real property. A bequest is the act of giving property by will, usually referring to personal property. Today, the two words are often used interchangeably due to thei ...
in his will. DeGolyer served on the boards of the Dallas Museum of Art, the Dallas Arboretum, and the
Dallas Public Library The Dallas Public Library (DPL) is the public library system that serves the city of Dallas, Texas, United States. With more than 4 million items and 30 locations, the Dallas Public Library is the largest public library system in North Texas. A ...
. The DeGolyers lived at Rancho Encinal, a Spanish Colonial Revival home in Dallas, elegantly furnished with an extensive library and museum-quality furniture and art. The 1940 estate, located on the shores of White Rock Lake, across the lake from H L Hunt's Mt Vernon Estate, would later become the permanent location of the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Gardens. The DeGolyer Estate is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
. Everette and Nell DeGolyer had four children: Nell Virginia, born in Norman, Oklahoma, Dorothy Margaret, Cecilia Jeanne, and Everett Lee Jr, all born in Montclair, New Jersey. Cecilia married George C. McGhee, a protégé of Everette's, who would serve as a U.S. Undersecretary of State and U.S. Ambassador to West Germany and Turkey. DeGolyer was a prolific collector of rare books, donating his collection on the history of science to the University of Oklahoma and his collection of rare books of modern American and English writers to the
University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...
. The literary collections he donated included early editions of books by English authors Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling, Robert Louis Stevenson, George Bernard Shaw, Lewis Carroll, and American writers Walt Whitman, Henry David Thoreau, Herman Melville, Ernest Hemingway, Sherwood Anderson, Booth Tarkington, and Christopher Morley. In later life, he helped to create a course on the History of Science at the University of Oklahoma. The more notable scientific books in his collection included work by Copernicus, ''Study of the Universe'' by Hbranus Maurus printed in 1467, an edition of Euclid's ''Elements'' published in 1482, a work by German physicist and astronomer Johannes Kepler, five first editions of Galileo's works, and copies of Newton's seminal work ''
Principia Mathematica The ''Principia Mathematica'' (often abbreviated ''PM'') is a three-volume work on the foundations of mathematics written by the mathematician–philosophers Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell and published in 1910, 1912, and 1 ...
'', three volumes with first edition . The DeGolyer Library at
Southern Methodist University Southern Methodist University (SMU) is a Private university, private research university in Dallas, Texas, United States, with a satellite campus in Taos County, New Mexico. SMU was founded on April 17, 1911, by the Methodist Episcopal Church, ...
includes law books relating to oil and gas and DeGolyer's collection on the history of Mexico and the American West. DeGolyer was involved in the founding of St. Mark's School of Texas in the early 1950s, and was on the board and served as President of the Dallas Public Library. In September 1949 DeGolyer was diagnosed with a detached retina in his right eye, though he had been having some difficulty with vision in both eyes and had noticed the problem for at least a year. Surgery to reattach the retina was unsuccessful, though his retinal problems could have been aggravated by anemic retinopathy, not uncommon in untreated sufferers of aplastic anemia with consistently low hemoglobin counts. After being prescribed Chloromycetin, an antibiotic given to prevent eye infections, which became the primary cause of his aplastic anemia, he was officially diagnosed with the illness around 1952.DeGolyer had a retinal detachment in his right eye but had problems reading in both eyes and surgery failed in Tinkle, Lon, Mr. De.: ''A Biography of Everette DeGolyer'', (1970) Little Brown, pg. 321-2 After suffering from diminishing vision, memory problems, and a painful blood disease for close to seven years, Everette DeGolyer took his own life in his office in Dallas on December 14, 1956.


See also

*
List of geophysicists This is a list of geophysicists, people who made Notability in English Wikipedia, notable contributions to geophysics, whether or not geophysics was their primary field. These include historical figures who laid the foundations for the field of ge ...
*
DeGolyer and MacNaughton DeGolyer and MacNaughton is a petroleum consulting company based in Dallas, Texas, with offices in Houston, Buenos Aires, and Algiers. DeGolyer and MacNaughton was founded in 1936 by Everette Lee DeGolyer and Lewis MacNaughton. DeGolyer had f ...
* Geophysical Service, Inc. *
Hess Corporation Hess Corporation (formerly Amerada Hess Corporation) is an American global independent energy company involved in the oil exploration, exploration and production of Petroleum, crude oil and natural gas. It was formed by the merger of Hess Oil and ...
, formerly Amerada Petroleum Corporation (1919) and Hess Oil and Chemical


References


External links


Handbook of Texas Online, DeGolyer, Everette Lee


* ttp://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/degolyer-everette.pdf National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir {{DEFAULTSORT:Degolyer, Everette Lee 1886 births 1956 deaths American geophysicists American petroleum geologists University of Oklahoma alumni People from Greensburg, Kansas Scientists from Dallas Suicides in Texas John Fritz Medal recipients 20th-century American philanthropists 1956 suicides