Rocknocker: A Geologist’s Memoir. George Devries Klein

Their acceptance was slow because most science faculty lacked a connection to an established college. Much political effort was required to appoint science faculty to various colleges so degrees could be conferred through the colleges even though academic work was done in these new departments crossing college lines. Graduate programs as known in US universities were established later and also required connections into an existing college to confer degrees. Eventually, Oxford established special graduate colleges during the 1960’s.

      I met McKerrow and stayed at his house. He had a nice wife and three sons. I spent a few days reading literature and planning places to work. I bought a second-hand moped and learned to drive it so I could travel in the field.

      I was now ready to start field work. That meant taking trains to major communities, and riding my moped to outcrops, staying overnight in small hotels. I loaded the moped on the baggage car, entered a passenger compartment and on arrival, offloaded the moped. It was the same drill when connect with several different trains.

      My first stop was the coastal cliffs at Sidmouth, a beach resort community on the Dorset Coast. The outcrops were spectacular and I got off to a good start. Similarities to the Blomidon were obvious.

      I returned to Oxford because my father invited me to meet him in Paris for the weekend. I went there on Friday. We went to his favorite museums and restaurants, and at night, his favorite night clubs in Montmartre. I admit I was not all that impressed. There were still signs, 16 years later, of damage from World War II and the recovery was hardly complete. The shows at Montmartre were not much better than the strip joints in St. Louis and Kansas City which I visited occasionally with friends during graduate school. I said little not wanting to offend my father. I ate well while in Paris.

      Returning to the UK, I proceeded to look at Keuper Marl quarries and outcrops in the Midlands. I also took a side trip to the Welsh Coast to examine Ordovician turbidites.

      Later, I attended a weekend field meeting of the Yorkshire Geological Society focusing on Permian Rocks. Sam Carey attended also and told Sir Kingsley Dunham, head of the geology department at Durham University, and later Director of the British Geological Survey, that I was the best geology graduate student he met at Yale. I was flattered, but wondered if the Brits also had the same view of Carey as the Yale geology faculty.

      My last field area was on the Island of Arran. Afterwards I went to Edinburgh and drove my moped to Sicar Point to see the “Great Unconformity” described centuries ago by Hutton.

      That year, the International Geological Congress was held in Copenhagen. I wrote to register and was put on a wait list because I registered late. Eventually the organizing committee agreed to let me come but I had to prove that I arranged housing on my own. The Danish tourist office found me a private bed-and- breakfast. It was 45 minutes by trolley from the convention site.

      I attended technical sessions and met many leaders of international geology. John Sanders and John Rodgers were there. Rodgers acted surprised that I found a job. One of Sanders’s graduate school classmates, Heike Ignatius (BS University of Helsinki; PhD Yale, Quaternary geology) also attended. He worked for the Geological Survey of Finland and eventually became director during the 1980’s.

      As a government official, Heike stayed at the Finnish Embassy and decided the Finnish Embassy should host a Yale alumni cocktail party. Six of us attended. They offered canapés and aquavit. After 15 minutes, the canapés disappeared and they only served acquavit. To say I was feeling warm and no pain was an understatement. I made it my bed-and-breakfast place with no difficulty, however.

      I recall a paper by Dr. Kingma, a New Zealand geologist who challenged the turbidite paradigm. Ph. H. Kuenen challenged the speaker during the question period. The speaker interrupted Kuenen at which point Kuenen responded “I did not interrupt you when you gave your silly talk, so don’t interrupt me when I’m talking.” There was a hushed silence. When Kuenen finished, the session chair, Dr. Rudolph Trumpy of Switzerland said words to the effect that there are still differences of interpretation on this topic and we needed to pay attention and debate them. Apparently, not all European professors were dogmatic or believed they held a monopoly on truth.

      Later Sanders introduced me to Kuenen, but Kuenen lived up to his reputation as being totally uninterested in students and young PhD’s and barely talked with me.

      I saw John Sanders and Heike Ignatious again at lunch. They were talking about one evening in 1951 in New Haven. Both attended a movie and were stopped by some hoodlums demanding money. Heike stepped up to one, lifted him off the ground by the scruff of his neck, and threw him at the others saying, “Go back to your mother’s milk.” The hoodlums ran away.

      John then explained that Heike fought on the Russian front during the Russian-Finish War of 1941 and sustained a serious head injury. A major part of his skull was a metal plate.

      I returned to Oxford, packed, went back to Gatwick, and returned to the USA.

      LESSONS LEARNED:

      1. When working overseas, time schedules are different and things move more slowly. My mother told me later, “What you save in money, you lose in time.”

      2. When budgeting for overseas work trips or other travel, expect to spend at least 20 to 30% more and plan accordingly.

      3. When attending International conferences, expect everything to be more formal. In particular, expect academicians to be somewhat more dogmatic. Allow time to develop collegial working relations, particularly with continental Europeans. It is easier to establish collegial relations with the British.

       Chapter 9

      Sinclair Research, Tulsa, OK (1960-1961)

      The Sinclair Oil Company was founded in 1916 by Harry F. Sinclair and grew to be the seventh largest oil company in the USA at one time. It was primarily an exploration company. Harry Sinclair was a colorful gent and spent time in jail for his involvement in the Teapot Dome Scandal. The company was extremely conservative and risk adverse. Their exploration paradigm was the “hind tit” approach, namely, let someone make the initial discovery and then lease offset acreage if available. The company was acquired by ARCO in 1969.

      Sinclair Research was formed during the 1950’s and individuals from the operating company were transferred to staff it. Their only PhD on staff when I interviewed was Bernie Rolfe who hired me. In 1960, when Glenn Visher and I were hired, it was as much of an accident as to fill a need. The operating company, applying for a loan from a major New York bank, was asked, “What is Sinclair doing in the way of expanding its research to find more oil and gas?” Sinclair management responded that they just hired two PhD’s, one from Yale and one from Northwestern. The loan was approved.

      After returning to the USA, I called Bernie Rolfe to make arrangements to start work. We mutually agreed I should rent a car and drive to Tulsa. I did so and drove west. I arrived around 1:00 PM on September 15, 1960, reporting to Bernie. After filling out forms to get on the payroll, health insurance, and few other formalities, I was asked to attend a staff meeting that afternoon at 2:00 PM.

      Bernie then took me to another building and introduced me to my manager, Robbie Robinson. Robbie and I quickly established rapport particularly because he earned both his BS and MS at the University of Nebraska. We discussed the KU and Nebraska athletic rivalries. I also asked Robbie about his experience in the petroleum industry and he told me he had spent time on a Sinclair geophysical crew in Louisiana before the lab was established. He was transferred three years before I arrived and completed work on classifying and identifying visual porosity in carbonate rocks.

      Robbie then took me to a large room which I was to use as an office and lab. I shared it with Glenn S. Visher (BS, MS Cincinnati, PhD Northwestern, stratigraphy; Shell Oil, Sinclair Research, Univ. of Tulsa, BNJ Exploration). Glenn worked for Shell Oil and left because they did not transfer him to their research lab, despite assurances they would do so.

      I then attended the staff meeting and was introduced to everyone, including a computer systems person, a geochemist (Bill “Jake” Jacobsen), a water chemist (Nat