Richard Vaughan

1926 - 2020

RICHARD HOWARD VAUGHAN
November 28, 1926 - November 2, 2020

Richard Vaughan 93, of Bakersfield, California passed away peacefully in Carmel, CA in the presence of his family.

"Dick" was born in Alhambra, CA as an only child to Thelma Grace and Howard Vaughan who both met while attending Stanford University. Howard worked in the oil business and the family spent time in Bakersfield and Alhambra. Dick ran track in High school and enlisted in the Navy after graduation, deploying in the Pacific Fleet. After the war he attended Stanford University where he ran track and attained a Bachelors and Master's Degree in Geology. He met and married his wife of 64 years, Mary "Polly" Mintzer while at Stanford.

Dick worked briefly in the mining industry but switched to the oil business where his first job was field mapping the entire 1000-mile long Coast Range for Standard Oil. He soon joined Franco Western Oil Company in Bakersfield but took a winger on a start-up oil company called Occidental Petroleum as their first and only geologist in 1959. After some success at drilling gas wells in Sacramento he began hiring his geologist and engineer friends to come live and work in Bakersfield for the fledgling OXY. The entrepreneurial financier side of OXY, Dr. Armand Hammer asked Dick if he could explore for oil anywhere in the world where would it be? Dick said "Libya" and was quickly deployed from the tiny Bakersfield OXY to Libya with his great friend and geologist Jim Blom. Through grit and smarts, they won concessions against the major oil companies and went on to discover what would turn out to be 4.5 billion barrels of oil in Libya. OXY catapulted to become the eighth largest oil company in the US behind the "seven sisters" major companies. Dick treasured his time at OXY where his coworkers became his best friends who went on to discover 9 billion barrels of oil through his 25 years working there as chief geologist. Dick was active as a geologist until very recently and thoroughly loved fishing on his boat in San Diego and Mexico and fly fishing in Wilson, WY.

Dick is survived by his wife Polly, daughter Carolyn Vaughan and husband John Massuco, son Jeff and wife Jenny Vaughan, and their grandchildren Ali and Jackson Vaughan. In lieu of a service, the family asks that you raise a glass to Dick for a life well lived.