Hi Alumni:

This is a section just for you. You are invited to send any news, stories or pictures about yourself or other alumni that you would like for us to post. Send them to me at mlbrou@rice.edu. I would like to hear from you soon and often.

Martha Lou
 

Dr. Daniel E. Shier - B.A. 1961

I have made my career in the oil and gas business through thick and thin Ð with lots of thin. I started out doing micropaleontology and ended up as a world-class expert in recalibrating old well log data. I am mostly retired, living in my boyhood home near Golden Colorado, where I have raised four children. I spend a lot of time on the trails with my two horses, assisting a couple of volunteer organizations. 6/06

Ann Plaen - B.A. 1979

I am a senior manager with Lockheed Martin on the Atlas Launch Vehicle Program. My 2 young sons and I live in SW Denver area. 6/06

Jane Monroe - B.A. 1973

My husband, Scott and I are enjoying our first year as "empty nesters." Our oldest son, Mike is a youth minister at St Peter's Episcopal Church in Rockport, Texas and our youngest, David, is an IT manager for Spectrum Creations in San Antonio. Scott continues to work as a military (USAF) contract doctor at Randolph AFB and I keep busy with volunteer work and the outreach and prayer, ministries of Christ Episcopal Church. 6/06

Michael L. Johnson - M.A. 1975

I retired from Conoco after almost 30 years of service and I am spending my time in various ways. I serve on the board of directors for a newly formed company and serve as an advisor for the City of Stavanger, Norway. My wife, Judy still works for the city of Houston, and my two kids are now in college, but both turned Rice down. We plan to move to our ranch outside Santa Fe, N.M, late next year and really retire. 6/06

Jerry Kennedy - M.A. 1981

News: Relocated in May 2006 to be Technical Manager for Hess in Cairo, Egypt. 6/06

Bill Matthews (aka William) -  M.A. 1983

I am with Schlumburger - Marketing manager, geology based in Houston 6/06

E. William Behrens - Ph.D. 1963

Went from Rice to UT Austin in 1961- now retired from UT (1999). It was a good run. Now living near the UT Marine Science Institute where I went to work 10 days before Hurricane Carla in 1961. 6/06

Loy Harris - B.A. 1984

Loy is not a working geologist. Loy works for a health insurance company in the fraud department. He talks to Kevin Clark almost daily and at any opportunity, Loy & Kevin will tell you field camp stories. 6/06

Bill Peebles - B.A. 1970

Still kicking around the oil patch. Currently at Occidental Petroleum in Long Beach, California. 6/06

Jannette (Jann) Boyer - B.A. 1972, M.A. 1975

After 30 years in a variety of assignments in exploration and production at EXXON/EXXON-Mobil, I retired in late 2004. I am now the co-treasurer of the Association for Women Geoscientist's Lonestar chapter, working hard to encourage women and minorities to study earth sciences. I also teach yoga in the Iyengar tradition, do some contract work for EXXON-Mobil, admire my husband's golf game, and generally stay too busy. I feel lucky to be kicking around and having fun.

Kevin Clark - B.A. 1984

Kevin is not a working geologist. Kevin is a business solutions consultant for a world famous copier company. He and Loy Harris still talk almost daily. Field camp stories (from almost 25 years ago) still fill many minutes of these conversations.

Vic Abadie - B.A. 1975, M.A. 1981

I am still dodging great white sharks in northern California and screening drilling deals for private clients. Phone if you have an onshore, Gulf Coast deal to show or to discuss risking some money in exploration - or to get my email address: 650.728.3373 6/06

Wayne Ahr - Ph.D. 1967

Wayne received the Texas A&M Association of Former Students Distinguished Achievement Award for Teaching (College Level) in 2005; he will give an invited keynote address at the Carboniferous Congress meeting, Sept. 2006, Cologne, Germany, and no, he's not retired yet. 6/06

James Sherar - B.A. 1959

I am now an independent consulting geophysicist. Registered - Texas & Certified - AAPG. I am no longer associated with Subsurface Consultants - 6/06

A. Ray Jacobson - B.A. 1963

I have practiced Obstetrics & Gynecology for 20 years in San Marcos, TX, and prior - 13 years in West Virginia. I have enjoyed both places greatly. I am married to Mary Gail Nagai Jacobson, one son David & daughter-in-law Leticia; 2 grandchildren, Dakota & Karbee (they are so cute)- 6/06

Blanche (Sunderland) Ramsey - M.A. 2004

After two years with Anadarko Petroleum, Blanche changed employers. She has worked for Southwestern Energy, located in Greenspoint, since Jan. 2006 and is enjoying added responsibilities and opportunities at this smaller company. She is publishing a paper on Overton field associated with the East Texas Geological Society's Mesozoic Sandstone Gas Province Symposium in Nov. 2006.

Blanche married Jake Ramsey, a fellow geologist, in November 2005. They currently reside in The Woodlands in their first house and are expecting their first child, due in February. 2007. They couldn't be happier

Ted H. Foss - Ph.D., P.G., 1964
 
Dr. Foss died September 7, 2003 but is remembered as a long-time supporter of the Department. He was a Fellow of GSA, a Fellow of AIME, a Certified Professional Geologist, and well known in the mining and environmental community. His activities with the Department, NASA, and later were captured in a professional memorial (http://www.ela-iet.com/Fossmem.pdf).

Michael D. Campbell, P.G., P.H. - M.A. 1976

Mr. Campbell was recently elected a Fellow in the Geological Society  of America and was appointed Chairman of the Nuclear Minerals  (Uranium) Committee of the Energy Minerals Div.,  American  Association of Petroleum Geologists. Since leaving DuPont in the mid 1990s, he has served as Principal of M. D. Campbell and Associates in  Houston, Texas, and serves as Principal Hydrogeologist for the  Environmental Litigation Associates and as Principal Instructor,  Institute of Environmental Technology, Houston.

During the early 1970s, Mr. Campbell was Director of a research group that conducted the first EPA research at Rice on environmental subjects, which later funded other Rice departments for more than 20 years. www.mdcampbell.com/mdcCV.asp 

James W. Handscy -  Ph.D. 1989

James W. Handscy has been nominated for Editor of AAPG. He is Manager of Global Geology for ConocoPhillips in Houston

Martha Lou Broussard - B.A. 1957

Matha Lou Broussard will receive the Honorary Membership Award at the AAPG Annual Meeting in Dallas on April 18. She received the Distinguish Service Award in 1989 and was the second person to receive Honorary Membership in the House of Delegates in 2001. Martha Lou was the first woman to serve on the Executive Committee of AAPG when she was elected Chairman of the House of Delegates in 1987, She is also the only woman to serve as Vice President of AAPG (1998-1999).

Julia Smith Wellner - Ph.D. 2001

Augustus Amund Wellner was born April 18, 2003. He weighed 7 lb.15 oz and is 20.5 inches long. Both mother and son are doing well.

Joe Satterfield - B.A. 1980; Ph.D. 1995
Alison Mills Saterfield - B.A. 1980

Joe and Allison are moving to San Angelo, Texas in July where Joe will take up his new position as Assistant Professor at Angelo State University. He will send his new email address after he moves.

Shaoli Lu -  M.A. 1993

 I will have a booth at the AAPG convention May 11-14, in Salt Lake City. If you plan to attend the meeting, please come to my booth. My booth number is 1308. I will demonstrate that using my mobile visualization software, HandyGeo, geologists and geophysicists can now visualize and interpret huge 3D seismic data volume anytime anywhere, even on a little handheld pocket pc.

I will also have a booth at the EAGE Conference June 2-5, in Stavanger Norway. If you know anyone who plans to go to EAGE, please let me know, I want to find someone to go with me from Houston.

I feel very lucky living in this fast communication era, the power of new technology is amazing. Please do not forget Booth # 1308 at the AAPG    www.leadingsoft.com

Phil Heckle - Ph.D. 1966

Among my memories of Rice in the early 1960s are the great camaraderie with fellow students, both graduate and undergraduate, good courses with interesting professors, and fantastic parties (that occasionally included some of the younger professors). Highlights included the 1962 Geological Society of America national meeting in Houston at which many of us graduate students were pressed into service doing various chores, including showing slides at luncheon meetings and so forth. We were paid off by free tickets to the huge cocktail party in the Shamrock Hilton, where we heartily collected our wages, resulting in several enduring stories that have come down through the ages. Another highlight was the field work in British Honduras [now Belize] with several other graduate students of my initial advisor Ed Purdy, which just as readily resulted in many enduring stories.

Also memorable was the great intellectual ferment in developing the interpretations of depositional environments of sedimentary rocks that was fostered by the personnel at the nearby oil company research labs, especially Shell Development where Jim Wilson worked. These professionals, who were probably 5 years ahead of academic research at that time, freely interacted with us students, probably partly because they were not allowed to share 'secrets' with competing research groups at other oil companies. This ferment, embodied in Jim Wilson's courses on 'Stratigraphy of Depositional Environments', which I took twice while he was a visiting professor in the early 1960s, was what set me out on my career in sedimentary geology, which has now spanned nearly 40 years at the Kansas Geological Survey and the University of Iowa.