Interviewer(s): E. Bernier. Houma, LA

Affiliation: University of Arizona

Richard Goodroe lives across the street from Burleigh and Molly Ruiz. I had stopped by to visit with the Ruiz family, and Richard stopped in to bring them some fruit from his trees. We got to talking and decided that he would be a good person to interview. He worked for BJ Casing Co. for many years but had experience in many aspects of the oil industry. We set up the interview for the next week. Mr. Goodroe speaks fondly of some oil field memories but also speaks to the extreme amount of stress that everyone was under the entire time they worked.

Richard Goodroe came from an oil family as his father, Cecil Goodroe, was a big man for Texaco. He grew up in the Bayou region, graduating from high school in Golden Meadow and then moving to Houma after that. His grandfather owned the "Houma Times" when it was still downtown. He worked for Noble Drilling for awhile in 1954 until he went to LSU and then was drafted. When he returned, his father was working in the Houma District, and company policy required Richard to work elsewhere. In 1961, he got a job with Kerr McGee as a dispatcher. The company moved him to Cameron where he worked for 9 months straight with no time off. He couldn't take that anymore, so he went to work as a roustabout offshore for a couple of months. In 1963, he got a job with B.J. Casing. He worked there for 16 years and then quit because of a disagreement with a boss. He went to work for the competition, Western, as a field foreman offshore. He retired early in 1999 because of health problems.