Interviewer(s): E. Bernier. Morgan City, LA

Affiliation: University of Arizona

Burt Ross is a member of the Old Salts Club, as they have dubbed themselves. I met him through Rylan Higgins in Morgan City one early morning at Shoney's. Rylan's contact to the group is Mr. Jimmy Jett. All members of the Old Salts Club worked for Magnolia (Mobil) in some capacity. Burt is a very soft-spoken man who has a wonderful memory about where he was and when. He stated that going through the process of remembering his past jobs was difficult due to how many jobs he'd held in the oilfield. Burt has a wonderful picture of an accident where a boat ran into a rig and ripped it out of the water. The boat should have sunk; instead it sailed back to port with the rig on top of it and the men still in the rig.

Burt Ross was born in 1928 in Morgan City, finished high school in 1947, and went to work for Magnolia as a galley hand in 1949. He was laid off after two months when the work slowed down and then rehired as a deckhand a month later. He was transferred to Texas in 1951 due to lack of work and then drafted into the army in 1952. When he returned to Morgan City after his discharge in 1954, Burt was immediately hired by Magnolia as a roustabout. He was advanced through several positions within the company (Magnolia/Mobil) and retired in the 1980s as a production supervisor IV.