Overview

Everette Lee DeGolyer wore many hats—and he wore them with distinction. Though not a geophysicist, he helped make geophysics central to oil exploration. Though not a politician, he played an important role in the national politics of energy. Though trained as a geologist, he became an important business executive. DeGolyer left his stamp on oil exploration and his name on a number of philanthropic institutions, including the DeGolyer Library at Southern Methodist University. This account of DeGolyer’s life, at once readable and yet authoritative, covers the period from his training with the United States Geological Survey in the American West, to his geological exploration of Mexico during the Revolution of the 1910s, his pioneering investment in geophysical prospecting technologies, and his work on behalf of the United States government in World War II, including a ground-breaking secret mission to the Middle East. Houston Mount develops his account of the career of Everette Lee DeGolyer in a way that provides a useful lens through which to examine the rising fortunes of earth scientists in the oil industry and in government—a process for which DeGolyer’s spectacular career was both an exemplar and a catalyst.

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9781623491826

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Everette DeGolyer greatly shaped the oil industry in the first half of the twentieth century but remains one of the least studied and understood figures of his time. Houston Mount has produced an engaging account that explains DeGolyer's impact and suggests how this fascinating figure was much more than simply an oil man. This book will serve as a valuable resource in future studies that seek to unravel the tangled threads of activities and people who sought for and discovered the voluminous quantity of oil Americans craved. --Brian Frehner, author of Finding Oil: The Nature of Petroleum Geology

"""Everette DeGolyer greatly shaped the oil industry in the first half of the twentieth century but remains one of the least studied and understood figures of his time. Houston Mount has produced an engaging account that explains DeGolyer's impact and suggests how this fascinating figure was much more than simply an ""oil man."" This book will serve as a valuable resource in future studies that seek to unravel the tangled threads of activities and people who sought for and discovered the voluminous quantity of oil Americans craved.""--Brian Frehner, author of Finding Oil: The Nature of Petroleum Geology-- (07/09/2014) ""Professor Mount has provided a very detailed account, with over 40 pages of endnotes, of DeGolyer's very active and long life in a very readable narrative. The text is supported by illustrations, including several maps. . . I highly recommend Professor Mount's book to anyone who is interested in the history of the modern oil industry, and to anyone who is interested in just a well-written take of a most interesting life.""--Oil-Industry History--Oil-Industry History"

Author Information

Houston Faust Mount II is an assistant professor of history at East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma, USA. His PhD is from Southern Methodist University, USA.

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