Robert H. Humphreys

1926 - 2021

“When I first saw Eleanor, she was the most beautiful girl that I had ever seen. I did my ‘Dick Tracy’ detective work, and I figured out that she was going to high school in Bladensburg. She was living with her brother, Ralph, in Utica and taking the bus to school. I figured out her address, and I went and knocked on her door and said, ‘You don’t know me. I’m Bob Humphreys. I think you are the most beautiful girl in the county, and I want a date with you.’ She said, ‘You’re right. I don’t know you.” I said, ‘I’m not leaving until you say that you’ll go out with me.’ I took her bowling on our first date. On the way home, I told her that I was going to marry her.”

~ Robert Harvey Humphreys

 

Bob Humphreys passed away on Feb. 22, in 2021, in Houston, where he had resided for nearly 50 years. He was 95.

He was born in Grove City on Feb. 8, 1926, the son of Robert Buxton Humphreys and Marie C. (Kildoo) Humphreys.

As a boy growing up in Grove City, Pa., during the Great Depression, Bob displayed the initiative and work ethic that would lead him to a long and rewarding career with the Cooper Bessemer Corp., which later became Cooper Energy Services.

Not yet in his teens, Bob was an entrepreneur before he even knew what the word meant. He gathered elderberries, loaded them in a small wagon and sold them door-to-door for 5 cents a quart. He searched for discarded tire inner tubes, which he sold to an auto junkyard for 10 or 15 cents, and he earned 15 cents by delivering advertising handouts for a mom-and-pop grocery store.

Bob’s father worked for Cooper Bessemer in Grove City. The company manufactured engines and compressors for the oil and gas industry and other industrial markets. In 1942 the family moved to Mount Vernon, Ohio, when Bob’s father was assigned to the Cooper Bessemer plant there.

At 16, Bob began working in the plant’s mailroom. It was the start of a nearly half-century career that would take him around the world.

After graduating from Mount Vernon High School in 1943 and his discharge from the U.S. Army Air Force cadet program in August 1945, Bob was a student at Otterbein University. In February 1946, he met the love of his life, Eleanor May Glass of Bladensburg, Ohio. They were married in Mount Vernon on Oct. 11, 1946.

The young couple rented an apartment in Westerville, Ohio, where Bob continued his education at Otterbein. Bob spent their first summer working for Cooper Bessemer in resarch and development of the industry’s largest 116-ton integral engine compressor.

Bob’s plan to enroll at Purdue University changed when Cooper management persuaded him to help field service with further development of the company’s first GMW-10 units being installed on a major natural gas pipeline in Liberal, Kan.

In 1948 Tulsa, Okla., hosted their largest International Petroleum Exposition, which drew 300,000 visitors during eight days. Cooper Bessemer exhibited the new 116-ton GMW-10 engine compressor operating on diesel fuel, which was the star attraction of the show. This was an opportune experience for Bob and Eleanor’s future.

In January 1948 Bob accepted an assignment to Tulsa, then considered the oil capital of the world, as a field service engine erector.

After installing and commissioning many engine units and attending night school at Tulsa University, Bob worked into unit sales engineering.

By 1954 he was responsible for sales to major oil and gas transmission companies. Bob and Eleanor were members of the Tulsa Petroleum Club and Bob was active in the Akdar Shrine.

In the early 1950s Bob had become active in the Gas Processors Suppliers Association and later was president. He and Eleanor traveled to annual meetings of the Southern and American Gas Associations and Society of Petroleum Engineers.

In 1958 Bob and Eleanor were friends of the Floyd Stanley family. Stan promoted and built the Florida Gas Transmission pipeline from the valley of Texas to Miami, Fla. Bob helped design the compressor stations. Bob and Eleanor later attended the pipeline dedication in Jacksonville, Fla.

Eleanor and Bob were delegates to the Oklahoma Republican state convention in 1964. They traveled with their children to Washington, D.C., where they were guests of their congressman, Page Belcher, in the congressional dining room.

In February 1965 Bob became manager of the Gulf Coast area in New Orleans and offshore business was booming. He continued major project sales with Panhandle Eastern and Florida Gas companies.

In March 1966 Bob was named worldwide manager of gas and oil production sales activities. The family moved to Mount Vernon, Ohio, the home office for Cooper Industries. Returning home was a blessing because Eleanor’s and Bob's parents were still in good health. Bob traveled to most of the foreign and domestic locations where oil and natural gas were produced.

In Mount Vernon Eleanor joined Bob in hosting many business customers, associates and wives from Kuwait, Iran, Lebanon, Libya, Venezuela, Argentina, Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia and the Soviet Union.

In January 1972 Cooper reorganized their marketing division. Bob and Eleanor moved to Houston where Bob served as Regional Director, including South America. They joined the local John Wesley United Methodist Church and were active early supporters of the church.

Bob and Eleanor became members of the Houston Petroleum Club and moved into the Champions housing development where they joined the Champions Golf Club. The couple developed new friendships, arranged

social events and continued travels to oil and gas professional organizations' yearly meetings.

Although he had no experience in Mexico, Bob was asked by Cooper's president late in 1977 to assist on a Pemex major gas pipeline to the U.S. Cooper won a contract to supply 62 percent of the compressors. Many successes followed and Bob formed a Mexican joint venture, Servicios Energticos Cooper S.A. With the business growth Eleanor and Bob were asked to move to Mexico City where Bob served as vice president and general manager. The move was made in March 1980 while maintaining their home and an office in Houston.

The joint Venture grew with some manufacturing and was profitable through tough times. Bob presented two papers titled Opportunities and Obstacles to World Trade Institute seminars in Houston on Mexico. In March 1985 Eleanor and Bob moved back to Houston where Bob managed operations in Mexico and South America.

In the late 1980s Bob developed a sales contract with Maraven and formed a company that was built in Venezuela and installed seven 35,000-horsepower, 820-ton Cooper-Rolls gas turbine centrifugal compressor structures for offshore Lake Maracaibo and one shoreline plant.

After Bob retired in 1992, he and Eleanor traveled nearly 150,000 miles in their diesel motor coach, visiting family in Ohio and making new friends throughout western states. Bob found time to consult and influence a jumbo project in Venezuela. For nine years Bob wrote Tech Notes, a monthly column on diesel motor coaches for the American Coach Owners Association.

He is survived by four children: Janis Gibbs and husband Larry of Howard, Ohio, Deborah Humphreys of Houston, Texas, Robert H.B. Humphreys and wife Jill of Spring, Texas, Richard Humphreys and wife Cindy of Houston, Texas, grandchildren, Judd Hayes of Mount Vernon, Ohio, Jennifer Hayes of Howard, Ohio, Amy Scobee and husband Kenny of Spring, Texas, Robert H.B. Humphreys Jr. and Renee MacFarland of Spring, Texas, William Humphreys of Houston, Texas and Elizabeth Ray and husband Brett of Missouri City, Texas, great-grandchildren Eleanor Hayes, Madeline Humphreys, Parker Lawdanski, Dutch Scobee, Emma Ray, Ellie Ray, and many nieces and nephews.

In addition to his wife, Bob was preceded in death by beloved grandson, Charlie Hayes, and two sisters, Ruth Sheffer and Donna Rahrig.

Visitation will be 4 to 8 p.m. on Sunday, March 7, at the Klein Funeral Home, 16131 Champion Forest Dr, Klein, Tx 77389. Services will be at 10 a.m. on Monday, March 8, at the funeral home. Interment and a graveside service will follow.

In lieu of flowers donations may be made to John Wesley United Methodist Church, 5830 Bermuda Dunes, Houston, TX. at:   www.jwumc.org

 

Below is the link to the recorded version of the livestream video of the 10 a.m. Monday, March 8th service:

 

https://youtu.be/QGA0-6ulcFg