Interviewer: Tyler Priest

Affiliation: University of Houston

Drew Michel was born a native of south Louisiana, where he naturally gravitated to the oil patch. Michel left his home in Morgan City in 1960 to join up with the U.S. Navy, after which he worked for both Honeywell Electronics, in California, and NASA. On a trip back through Louisiana, Michel heard about an open position at Ocean Systems, having to do with deep diving, and he joined up. Michel soon moved on to Taylor Diving in 1968, and stayed there for eighteen years. Taylor deployed both divers and early-generation ROVs at Shell Oil’s massive Cognac fixed platform in the Gulf of Mexico in the late 1970s. Michel was also involved with the installation of the Auger tension-leg platform, and continued to provide ROVs and subsea expertise to the offshore oil and gas industry for decades afterwards.