Interviewer(s): Andrew Gardner; Diane Austin; Betsy Plumb. Patterson, LA

Affiliation: University of Arizona

Pete Rogers was recommended to me by Robert Shivers in Patterson. I came to discover that the social networks of retired oilmen in the region are very community-based; although I had talked to numerous Shell hands in Morgan City, none had mentioned Pete. Pete is 87 years old, and began work for Shell well before WWII. Prior to working on the survey crews in the area, he worked for timber companies, and he even drove the shrimp trucks up to New York City with Parker Conrad (see AG-017). His experiences in WWII were formative, and he is an amateur historian for his division in the Air Force. The first interview was fairly brief, as his responses to my questions were fairly short. This is not to say, however, that there wasn't a lot of good information here. We talked quite a bit about the community of Patterson, and the impact of the oil industry upon the community and the others around it. He talks about some of his early offshore work, and the difficulties of working offshore when one is married. We also talk about comparisons between Shell and the other major oil companies. He also does a good job of describing the industries that were already in place when the oil industry arrived in the region. We also talk about unionization in the oilpatch. A photo interview expanded on the first interview and provided new information. The interview focused on Pete's work with the early exploration and seismograph crews. He worked with an instrument called the torsion balance - a German-designed machine that would soon become a relic in oilfield exploration. Many of the photographs detail the process involved in setting up the instrument, carrying it between locations, and so on. In addition to this, however, there is a variety of other detail and description included in the interview. The third interview was conducted as part of the study of the links between WWII and the offshore industry.

Pete Rogers was born in Patterson, Louisiana, and he was 87 years old at the time of the 2002 interview - born in 1914. "Pete" and "Frenchie" are his nicknames - he got the second one during WWII. He started work for Shell Oil in 1935 as part of an exploration crew, but they had a temporary layoff in 1940, and he decided to join the military for service. When he got back from the war in 1945, he joined the production department at Shell. He retired in 1976 after 35 years, and with the 10 percent matching savings plan, he got a good retirement.