Scope and Contents Interviewer: Tyler PriestAffiliation: University of HoustonJim Rike was born and raised in Malakoff, a small Texas town. His career began at Kilgore Junior College, from which he transferred into Texas A&M University. Rike only got through a few years at A&M before he was called up to serve in the U.S. Navy during the Second World War. There he served as an aviation electronics technician’s mate. After the war, Rike completed his degree in electrical...

Scope and Contents Interviewer: Jason TheriotAffiliation: University of HoustonMyron Rodrigue was born and raised in Thibodaux, Louisiana, in 1947. Rodriguez earned an engineering drafting certificate and joined the U.S. Army reserves, and in 1958 joined up with McDermott. After a few promotions, Rodrigue attended night college for several years, learning cost analysis and gaining more engineering experience. Rodrigue worked as a field engineer in McDermott’s fabrication yard, and...

Scope and Contents Interviewer: Jason TheriotAffiliation: University of HoustonJohn Sevin graduated from high school in 1982, took a degree in petroleum engineering technology from Nichols State University, and began working for McDermott in 1988 at its Amelia yard. Sevin worked on some of the pipe machining for Shell Oil’s landmark Auger tension-leg platform in the early 1990s. When Shell began to fabricate the even larger Mars tension-leg platform, Sevin was appointed as head...

Scope and Contents Interviewer: Tyler PriestAffiliation: University of HoustonBill Stallworth was born in Rosebud, Texas, in 1932. After attending Tarleton for a few years, Stallworth transferred to Texas A&M University in 1951. After two years spent in the U.S. Air Force, Stallworth went directly to Brown & Root in 1956. He first worked as a cost engineer for a good amount of time in the Middle East on onshore-based petroleum projects. Stalwart was involved in major British...

Scope and Contents Interviewer: Tyler Priest and Jason TheriotAffiliation: University of HoustonGordon Sterling was raised in Ontario, Canada, and quickly developed an interest in engineering. He earned a master’s degree in structural engineering at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania in 1965, and soon ended up with Shell Oil in Houston. Two years later, working out of New Orleans for Shell’s central engineering group, Sterling began working on major design projects for platforms in the...

Scope and Contents Interviewer: Tyler PriestAffiliation: University of HoustonJohn Swoboda’s parents immigrated from Czechslovakia, and John was born in Galveston, Texas. When a third party showed Swoboda’s father plans for an offshore drilling rig, John helped with its fabrication—on the workover rig that became known as Skytop. During College, Swoboda worked for Collins Construction Company, helping to lay offshore pipelines in the late 1950s. After college, Swoboda landed a job...

Scope and Contents Interviewer: Tyler PriestAffiliation: University of HoustonHank Van Calcar grew up on a ranch in Oregon, and attended Oregon State University to study power engineering. With an additional master’s degree from OSU in hand by 1959, Van Calcar worked on control and feedback systems for TRW Systems. After several years, Van Calcar relocated to Seattle to work for Honeywell, where he became involved in building dynamically-positioned ships for the offshore drilling...

Scope and Contents Interviewer: Tyler PriestAffiliation: University of HoustonLeon Vincken was educated in the Netherlands in mechanical engineering, and joined Shell Oil in 1955. Vincent was immediately sent to Venezuela, where he spent the next decade of his career. Upon returning to Europe, Vincent was assigned to the research section of Shell, on a p project working to determine the ultimate depth limit of a human diver. Two and a half years later, Vincken was dispatched...

Scope and Contents Interviewer: Tyler PriestAffiliation : University of HoustonGeorge Vance grew up in Brooklyn, and from high school shipped off immediately to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. Vance would end up spending twenty years in the Coast Guard, the first half as a shipboard engineer—primarily on an icebreaker—and the second as a professor back at the Academy. Vance earned his doctorate while at the Academy, from the University of Rhode Island, focusing on modeling vessel...

Scope and Contents Interviewer : Jason TheriotAffiliation: University Of HoustonDenis Weber was born and raised in Donaldsonville, Louisiana, and took an engineering degree in 1975 from Nichols State University. The following year, he was hired by McDermott as a cost estimator, and through a career of thirty-four years with the firm, worked in a number of capacities. Weber served as a senior project manager for Shell Oil’s Auger tension-leg platform in the early 1990s, helping to...

Scope and Contents Interviewer : Tyler PriestAffiliation: University of HoustonSteven Wheeler hailed from Montana, from which he followed his father’s career into the oil industry and eventually to Houston. Wheeler earned a degree in mechanical engineering from Texas A&M, and promptly joined Texaco in 1975. He spent twelve years with Texaco in the North Sea, where he was introduced to subsea production technology, and worked especially on several record-setting subsea tie-back...

Scope and Contents Interviewer : Tyler PriestAffiliation: University of HoustonPhil Wilbourn studied at Tennessee Tech University on a baseball scholarship, and graduated in 1966 with an engineering degree in hand. In 1967, Wilbur signed on with Texaco, and worked for two years focused on shallow-water platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. Wilbur worked for Texaco across the Gulf Coast and in Saudi Arabia. He worked on the design phase for the LOOP port off of Louisiana as well. Wheeler...

Scope and Contents Interviewer : Jason PriestAffiliation: University of HoustonLou Wilkerson grew up in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and he took a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Arkansas. Subsequently, Wilkerson went to work for Shell in 1961, and later completed a master’s degree in chemical engineering. Wilkerson worked on a thermal project in East Texas, Arctic design projects, but predominantly on subsea and deepwater activities in engineering management. He...

Scope and Contents From the Collection: When UH’s Center for Public History and the University Libraries collaborated to create the Houston History Archives (UH-HHA), part of their mission included a repository for oral histories that tell stories of the growth and development of the Gulf Coast region from multiple points of view. To that end, the Houston Oral History Project in the Center for Public History trains history graduate students to research and interview Houstonians with recollections of the city’s civil rights,...

Scope and Contents Affiliation: University of ArizonaWhile attending a Desk and Derrick meeting with Lillian Espinoza-Gala, I met Adriel Abshire. Through talking to her, Lillian and I learned that Adriel had worked for Schlumberger since 1967. Because she had been in the industry for such a long time, we thought it would be a good idea to interview Adriel for the oral history project. At the end of the meeting, I asked Adriel for her contact information and asked if she would be interested in doing...