Interviewer: Jason Theriot

Affiliation: University of Houston

Dwight Johnston grew up in Dallas, Texas, into a family full of engineers. He attended Texas A&M University, and graduated with a degree in civil structural engineering. In 1978 he went to work in the oil patch with Shell, and remained with the company for over 32 years. Johnston served in Houston and California, but landed in 1988 in the New Orleans area for good. There, Johnston got on the ground floor of the industry’s push into deepwater in the Gulf of Mexico. Johnston worked as a manager of technical services for such landmark developments like Mars, Brutus, and Ursa. Afterwards, Johnston moved into the position of operations manager for both the Mars and Ram-Powell tension-leg platforms.