MSU Geology

The idea of this site initiated over a February 2001 lunch in Houston between Charlie Burshears and Bill Green. As with most lunches where there is some personal history, business quickly gives way to the questions of others from of that shared past. The who's doing what and where are they now generally leads to the, "Ya know, I really need to give that person a call." Which, in most cases, we never do. So, to remove the never from that sentence we decided to attempt to capture what information we can here in the hopes of hearing from a few more of you.

We do hope to hear from you.

We plan to make some comment about most of the folks on the list, even if it is no more than, "Haven't a clue to what happened to them." Remember the "golden rule" on this: It is better that you write the comments about you than for us to. Of course, if you have info on someone else, send it in.

Corrections and updates are always welcome.

Here are a few old photos. See if you can name some of those pictured. Forgive the quality, I didn't realize that some of these were starting to deteriorate. There may be more later depending on time and availability.

Memphis State and Unv. of Toledo
1976 Field Camp

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Dear fellow Tiger High Alumns,

If you are receiving this email, you probably attended Memphis State as an undergraduate or graduate student and were possibly touched by the kindness of Juanetz Allen while you were there. My name is Bill Crowder and I live in Dallas. I earned a B.S. in 1975 and a M.S. there in 1977. Even though I had a teaching assistantship and later shared an Amoco research grant with Jim McCullough, finances were always tight and Mrs. Allen always seemed to know when to show up with a hot casserole of turkey tetrazinni or macaroni andd cheese for the students.

I got a Christmas card from the Allens this year in which Jack, her huisband wrote, "Juanetz was really disappointed this year to miss the Christmas party for our Sunday School class, but she hemmoraged a few days before and had no choice." I gave them a call on New Year's Day and told Mrs. Allen that is was a shame she missed that party for the first time in 35 years but that next year she could go and take me with her. Her reply was "Honey, I'm living on borrowed time. The cancer is in my lungs, my colon and stomach. I sure would like to see you and Melanie one more time."

She didn't know we were divorced after 30 years of marriage but, on January 6th, I went through Shreveport, with my dog Hershey, on my way to see my folks, who are both in assisted living facilities near Jackson, Tennessee. You never would have known how sick she is.. On the Friday before I visited them, I called ahead and she said "Honey, I have to have another catscan Saturday morning, is it okay if the jambalaya isn't ready ubtil 1 or 2 PM?? What a saint!

We visited for about an hour that day amd I noticed that Jack was declining rapidly due to Parkinson's disease. He could barely walk across the living room and then had to sit back in the recliner for awhile. This isn't shocking to those of you with older parents but I couldn't help thinking "who will take care of him when she leaves this world?" They have the home of the dreams south of Shreveport and their only child, Steve, lives in New Orleans with his wife Debbie and their two boys, Chandler and Parker.

My intent in contacting you is simply for your information. I don't know how long she will be with us but I do know that she started chemotherapy just after I saw her and now takes an abdominal injection daily. When I called Sunday, she was really down. Jack had gotten up that morning and tried to make coffee but couldn't. She said she was really down and sat in her room and cried all day. because her new breast prostheses hurt so badly and she has to wear a wig. She said, "Bill, I've got no hair and no boobs, I wish my time on this earth was over."

I'm going over to Shreveport on Saturday (March 5th) and getting a bucket of chicken to take to them for lunch. Charlie and Diane Burshears are also going and will meet me. If any of you want to join us, just call me at 214-676-2225 and I'll get more chicken. With the busy schedules we all have (Thank God for $50/bbl oil!) , I know there's no way we could all get together at once, that's why I didn't write you earlier. And I don't know what shape she'll be in on Saturday anyway; but I'm betting she won't miss a chance to see us.

Juanetz lives to see her grandkids and to hear from you guys. Her address is 10013 Cantebury, Shreveport, Louisiana 71106 Phone is 318-798-2514. Please take time to let her know what she meant to you or at least pray for her and Jack. I apologize if this email makes you uncomfortable, but I've lost two friends in the last three years and I neglected to see them when I could have. The loss was all mine and perfect irony because I never could find time to visit but I could always find time to attend their funerals. The latest of these missed opportunities was was Joe Cooper in October, 2003.

God Bless you all and I hope to meet some of you again one day--bill c

Joe Battle
BS ’ ????
I heard years ago that Joe had left the corporate world of petroleum exploration and had started a consulting business named Battle and Battle with his wife. It seems like she may have gotten a law degree.(submitted by: Alex Scarbrough)

Stan Bishop
BS ’ ????
Stan Bishop spent his entire geological career with Amoco. He currently resides in Houston and is in Real Estate.

Dan Bonnet
BS ' MS ??
Currently a geologist for Houston Energy in Houston.

DAN BONNET
danb@houstonenergyinc.com

Kevin Boyd
MS 1979

Whoa! After looking at the photos and reading the names, a lot of memories
are brought back. For me, after a near arrest miss in the park (I can't
remember the name of it) during the 2nd annual "End of the World Party", I
wised up and continued by illustrious career at Amoco in New Orleans working
with the likes of Joe Cooper "the original white boy" in onshore Gulf Coast
exploration.

After about 5 years at Amoco, working between onshore and offshore GOM and
marrying a girl named Kim from Arkansas, I upped and decided to make a
career move and join Sohio in 1984 together with a move to Houston. Although
the career move prove fruitful, my marriage didn't. I divorced early in 1985
and was once again an eligable bachelor (not of science, I got my master,
right?). I continued to work the offshore GOM moving further out into the
deep water area. I went through the "there is no sand in the deep water"
around 1986 to "there too much sand in the deep water by 1990-1" phase. Oh
yeah, through this period, I survived about 8 layoffs, met my second and
current wife, Alice from California and got married in 1990. We met on the
beaches outside of Pensacola, but didn't get married for another 4 years (I
wasn't takin' no chances!). Also during that time Sohio was bought out by BP
which, I think, was a change for the better although it is different working
with British folk.

After a brief stint in Alaska from 1994 through 1996 working production
(yuk!), I came back to the GOM and continued working the deep water areas
off Lousiana and Texas. I have to say that, if you haven't visited Alaska,
do so. It's even more as Maryette described about getting away from people a
mile or so outside of town. There's a little mountain peak called Flat Top
that I could drive to the base of in ten minutes from my house. I used to
walk up and down it during the summer every other Friday morning (we went to
the 9/80 work week). I would see no one else....it was wonderful!

For the milennium, I decided to jump to a new position and moved to London
although I am working the deep water Amazon cone off the northeast coast of
Brasil. Together with the new office, my family (oops, I had a daughter
while I was in Alaska; her name is Mary) and I travel around quite a bit
seeing bits of Europe and Africa so far.

I would love to hear others stories as I plug into web site in the near
future!

As the brits would say,
cheers,

Kevin P. Boyd

KEVIN BOYD
Brasil Deepwater Exploration
Sunbury on Thames
phone - 44 (0)1932 76 0304
fax - 44 (0)1932 76 0333

boydkp@bp.com

Charlie Burshears
BS '75, MS '78

7/15/03
[A] summary since I left school:
This move is number 13 since Diane & I were married in 1974. I graduated in 1978 MS, BS 1975 both MSU. I started with TVA at the now defunct and buried Yellow Creek Nuclear Plant Iueka, MS. I was transferred to Knoxville in 1982 after Three Mile Island caused TVA to rethink their power program. MSU friends in Oil & Gas caused me to consider switching in 1983. Jon Norman was W TX Exploration manager with Hunt Energy Dallas TX and they had a position available. After the silver fiasco I switched to Hunt Petroleum and moved to Shreveport LA until 1987. Lured away by the thoughts of getting rich on ORRI we went to Baton Rouge with independent Pentagon Petroleum. We did some amazing things for a one geologist shop, drilled over 100 wells in 18 months, international licences in Syria, Belize and Guatemala and tried to get in Russia. After the partners split I went with one of them to form Onyxx Energy. We leased and worked over several deeper Wilcox fields in LA and sold one to Sonat for $1MM, upon which I was screwed so I got out of the business and moved to Arkansas to open a rock shop and antiques. That only lasted a year before we decided we needed food on the table. Went to work for Hogan Exploration Columbia, LA, ex Gov. of LA, John McKeithen. Stayed almost 2 years then they went belly up and I happened to interview with Sonat, lucky for me the guy who reiewed the field they bought from Onyxx liked it and knew I was the one who did the work. So on to Tyler TX we went. After a year Sonat was bought by El Paso and a move to Houston. Houston and the family did not get along to well, so I happened upon an ad looking for a Geologist in OK City. It looked too good to be true and as we all should learn, it was. They had financial problems after a almost 2 years and was talking to an old Sonat friend that said XTO (Cross Timbers) was looking. So here I am in Fort Worth TX. We have two boys 19 & 17, one at Junior at LSU and on Senior this year 2003.

Charlie

CHARLIE BURSHEARS
Charles_Burshears@xtoenergy.com

John Chimahusky
MS ’??
I ran across the website by doing a search this evening. I thought I'd
contribute a short update to the very short life story posted on the site.

Yes, I'm currently with Phillips Petroleum (24 years) in Bartlesville, OK
(last 5 years). Day before yesterday [9/2/02] the ConocoPhillips merger was
finalized so my heritage is now extinct. I kindly asked the new company not
to offer me a job (they tried) so I could strike out on my own, borne on the
wings of singing elves to a higher plane of existence (and oh yeah, a
generous severance package). So by the end of the year I will be set free.

One of these days I'll start looking for a new job, but I don't want to get
ahead of the severance process and have to turn down a good opportunity
because it comes too soon. I had a call from a headhunter in London Friday
a few hours before the FTC buckled under, and my resume is already in their
hands.

For the past five years I have been working the Former Soviet Union, mostly
the Caspian Sea area, and primarily in Kazakhstan, so that's what I'm likely
to try to capitalize on. But if I get a chance to go to work in Santa Fe,
so be it. Much more likely to find good green chili there anyway. In the
meantime, my current contact info:

2708 Montrose, Bartlesville, OK 74006
email: jschima@ppco.com (office) or jschima@bartnet.net (home)
918-331-0872 (home)
918-661-9372 (office)

I'll keep in touch and provide an update as my future congeals out of the
mist.

John Chimahusky

JOHN CHIMAHUSKY
2708 Montrose
Bartlesville, OK 74006
918-331-0872 (home)
918-661-9372 (office)

jschima@ppco.com
jschima@bartnet.net

Bill Crowder
MS ’77
Bill Crowder and Melonie are living in Dallas.
Bill is an independent oil man prospecting in North Texas.

BILL CROWDER
roknokr@ix.netcom.com

Joe Cooper
MS ’78
Joe died of cancer in November of 2003. After Memphis Joe worked for Amoco for about 20 years. He worked for a few years with Anschutz as Exploration Manager and was president of Far East Energy at the time of his death. We hope to have a better bio of Joe in the near future.

Linda Ferguson
?? ’??
She went to work for the State of California - possibly the California Geologic Survey.
(submitted by: Alex Scarbrough)

Richard Flores
BS ’76

This is Richard Flores.

I happened upon your MSU "M.e.a.s.u.r.e.d....S.e.c.t.i.o.n" website today. Looks like all the people we went to school with.

I left Exxon in 1993 to live and work in San Francisco Bay area of California. I am a computer information technology consultant nowadays. Take a look at my professional website, www.isinglass.com . The name of my company is the only remnant of my geological past.

Hard to summarize my personal life in the last 25+ years but can give you the information fand maybe a more recent photograph for publication at your web page sometime later.

Richard L. Flores

RICHARD FLORES
flores@isinglass.com

A. Scarbrough's attempt at naming:
Group shot with center three guys acting wild. Top row, left to right, Dave Lown, Unknown guy (with mouth open), Steve Rogers (with knife in his mouth giving a unique hand salute), Mike Milligan (with sticks/horns coming out of the back of his head), Unknown girl (possibly Linda Ferguson), Bob Spann (maybe).
Bottom Row: Nan (Moore) Reilly, Unknown infant, Maryette Rogers, Unknown girl (with arms crossed on her knees), Unknown guy (squatting with red shirt).

William Green
BS ’76
Still alive and having a bit of fun. And, trying to decide how to summarize what I’ve done since leaving Memphis "yesterday." More to come.

WILLIAM GREEN
wilgreen@elohi.com

Bill Green in the Tetons
at Field Camp

In Yellowstone Park
Winter of 2002

John Gustavson
?? ??
Moved himself and his consulting business to Boulder, Colorado over 20 years ago and is still there He maintains a website.
www.gustavson.com
(submitted by: Alex Scarbrough)

JOHN GUSTAVSON
Gustavson Associates, Inc.
5757 Central Ave., Suite D
Boulder, CO 80301 USA
303-443-2209
Gustavson@Gustavson.com

David Kosmitis
??
Kosmitis is working for Contango Oil & Gas in Houston. He "retired" from El Paso [in a rather comfortable position. (submitted by: Charlie Burshears)

Dave Lown
BS '75
(BS-Geol Eng ABT 1975 MSU; MS UT @ Knoxville ABT 1977-78) Dave worked for John Gustavson on zinc projects in both Middle Tennessee and North Arkansas before moving on to the same with Gulf Resources Corporation out of Lebanon, Tennessee. After GRC folded ABT 1976 he was District Geologist for Noranda Exploration in Rolla, Missouri. Hard times closed the office after a couple of years and he went back and got his EIT degree and worked as an civil engineer for a while. Noranda eventually rehired him to head their Eastern U.S. Division out of Cary, North Carolina where Alex Scarbrough worked for him from 1990 to 1992. At the end of that time Noranda pulled out of the Eastern U.S. Since then Dave has been working for the State of North Carolina in their hazardous material permitting and regulations section.

Dr. David N. Lumsden
Professor
Dr. Lumsden is now a full professor in the Geology/ Earth Science Department at the University of Memphis. He's apparently more into dolomite research and Markov Chain Analyses than he ever was. (submitted by: Alex Scarbrough)

Link to Department Bio and Photo of Dr. Lumsden

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Jim McCullough
??
Jim McCullough is Gulf Coast Exploration Manager for Burlington Resources.

Lance Moore
MS ’77

Currently lives in one of the suburbs of Houston.
Is a geologist for Gryphon Exploration. More from Lance later.

LANCE MOORE
Lance@gryphon-exploration.com

Nan Moore Reily
??

Nan at Field Camp in Rapid City

Nan currently lives outside Dallas.
She is married to Joe Reily, whom she met at the Memphis State/ U of Toledo Field Camp.

Bill Prior
??
Bill Prior is with the Arkansas Geological Survey.

John "Rocky" Proffit
??
I believe Rocky worked for Mobil and ARAMCO for quite a while. However, in 1993 when I was working on a zinc-lead-silver project out of Cartersville, Georgia the major land owner turned out to be his "Big Brother" from the fraternity that he was in at Emory University. He related that Rocky had gotten religion and had become a Minister of the Gospel. Small world! (submitted by: Alex Scarbrough)

Maryette & Steve Rogers
MS
Current Occupation (pays the bills) - Registrar for Western State College, Gunnison CO

Still married to Steve, 26 years this March. Glad he didn't go to the MSU field camp, we would never have met and wouldn't have had these wonderful years together. I've been out of Geology since 1986, when I went to work in Higher Education out of necessity.

We moved to Gunnison in 1998; quite a change from Boulder Colorado! The town has about 8000 people in it, the whole county is about 12,000. Advantages? Being able to drive a mile out of town for a picnic or hike, and not be stepping on people everywhere you go. Crested Butte is 30 miles north, nice place to go in the summer. Myimpression of downhill skiing is still 30 minutes of complete boredom followed by 3 minutes of sheer terror. We do some snowshoeing and X-country - more sedate pace.

I've got more pictures from that time, but currently no scanner. Of course we look the same!

Steve and Maryette Rogers on a caving trip
in Middle Tennessee

STEVE ROGERS
srogers@wol.western.edu

MARYETTE ROGERS
samurai10@usa.net

Barbara Savage
MS ’77
That site you guys put together is so cute I may have to go dig out some of my old photos for you! This is a good idea to dig up our old buddies. It seems we've got enough in Houston for a summer party!

After my job with SouthTech Exploration ended last August (about two weeks before September 11th), I have mostly been sailing. Last fall I did an offshore trip of about 1800 miles in a 41' sailboat from Rhode Island to St Thomas. Most recently, I just returned from an ocean race from Galveston to Veracruz, Mexico. WE did not make it all the way, so we just cruised the offshore waters and Texas coast for a couple of weeks. Lots of fun. I hope to get into another great job like the one that I left at SouthTech but meanwhile I am working contract so all these great sailing adventures can happen!

Your old geobuddy
Barbara Savage (was Poppelreiter)

BARBARA SAVAGE
P.O. Box 58852
Houston, TX 77258
(281) 793-0255

terra57@hotmail.com

Alex Scarbrough
MS ’75

Alex Scarbrough is alive and trying to survive in Centennial, Colorado (extreme south portion of Metro Denver Area).
I went to work for Cominco American in St. Charles, Missouri in July, 1975 and subsequently moved to Denver, Colorado in November, 1977 with Houston Oil and Minerals. Since that time I've worked for more mining companies than I can count including Tenneco Minerals, Nicor Mineral Ventures, Westmont Mining, USMX, Noranda Exploration, BHP Minerals International Exploration, and the Colorado Geologic Survey. Of course I've also had the the obligatory and seemingly endless experience as a geologic contractor and consultant. I've worked in over 25 states including Alaska but never overseas (yet!). My expertise is stratabound and straiform base metal deposits but I've also worked with bulk-tonnage gold and copper deposits in various environments. However, for the past 6 years I've had to engage in a lot of minerals resource inventory. It's not as much fun but sometimes it pays the bills!

I would enjoy hearing from anyone that was in the Geology Department between 1968 and 1975. We sure had a great faculty and group of majors. I still miss the great fields trips that the Department and Geology Club used to take.

Deep enough!

ALEX SCARBROUGH
AlexScar@aol.com

Jack Schank
MS ’76
Currently CEO of Samson Oil and Gas. Recently moved to Tulsa, OK. After leaving MSU he went to work for Unocal in Houston.