Interviewer(s): J. Christy. Morgan City, LA

Affiliation: University of Houston/History International

Charles Pearce was born in the Atchafalaya Basin and grew up on a houseboat. He is the son of a commercial fisherman who moved to Morgan City in the early 1940's to work in the oil field. His father roughnecked for Humble Oil and then transferred to production at Duck Lake. Mr. Pearce went to work at Chicago Bridge and Iron Works and learned to weld at age 16. He went to work for Sun Oil's seismograph department in the early 1950's. He was first part of a "water crew" that worked in south Louisiana and then he joined a "land crew" and went to Brownsville, Texas. He quit Sun Oil to stay in one location and went to work as a welder in Morgan City. Mr. Pearce mainly worked for LeBlanc Welders and for South Coast Welders. He did rig welding for Brown and Root, Kerr-McGee, Texaco, Shell, and other oil companies out of Morgan City.