Interviewer(s): D. Austin. River Ridge, LA.

Affiliation: University of Arizona

Several people told me I should contact Jim Burgess for an interview, but I had a hard time reaching him because he still works on a 30 and 30 schedule overseas. When I was at Buddy Ayers' house in July, Buddy told me that Jim was home and took me over to his house. Jim was packing to return to work, but he took time out for the interview. While Jim and I talked, Buddy sat in the kitchen with Jim's wife and chatted.

Jim Burgess was born in Champaign, Illinois and moved to the Gulf of Mexico in 1957 to work in oilfield diving. He got into diving in the Navy during the Korean War where he worked on mine recovery. When he got out of the service, the offshore oil and gas industry was beginning to take off, so Jim moved to Houma, Louisiana. At first, Jim had difficulty finding work because the companies were not hiring ex-Navy divers, so he went back to school. His first job in the Gulf was on Grand Isle for Walt Daspit repairing damage from a hurricane. After that job, he moved his wife to Morgan City, took a job with a new company, and started working overseas. He worked for several companies and then wound up at Dick Evans Divers, which was later bought by McDermott. He was a diver on Westinghouse's first total saturation job outside Roanoke, Virginia. Jim left McDermott in 1978 and worked as a consultant until 1995 when he took the overseas job he still holds today.