Michel T. Halbouty

MICHEL T. HALBOUTY, Michel T. Halbouty, 95, passed away on November 6, 2004. He is survived by his wife, Billye Stevens Halbouty; son, Thomas E. Kelly and wife, Cyd, of Seattle, WA: daughters, Linda Halbouty and husband, Lonnie Revious, of Colorado Springs, CO; Shyrrel Stevens and Joy Erfurdt, Houston; grandchildren, Michel Hewitt, Meghann Hewitt, T. Mark Kelly, Brooke McCurdy, Adrienne Kelly, Isla Kelly, Michel Stevens, five great-grandchildren; sister, Rosalie Maye and husband, Jack; brother, James J. Halbouty and wife, Dorsey, several nieces and nephews, and his long-time secretary, Mary Stewart. Halbouty joined the independent Yount-Lee Oil Company in Beaumont, Texas, immediately following graduation from A&M and six weeks later discovered the 150,000,000-barrel High Island, Texas, oil field. He was acknowledged as one of the world's foremost geologists and petroleum engineers and acclaimed for his scientific expertise and innovations in the exploration and production of petroleum, earning him the recognition of one of the world's outstanding geoscientists. He was born on June 21, 1909, in Beaumont Texas, son of Lebanese immigrants who came to Beaumont, Texas, in the late 1890's. He was a graduate of Texas A&M University, having received his B.S. and M.S. degrees (1930-31, respectively) in both geology and petroleum engineering. He also earned the Profession Degree in Geological Engineering from Texas A&M in 1956. The Montana College of Mineral Science and Technology conferred the degree of Doctor of Engineering (HC), upon him in 1966. In May 1990, he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Geoscience (HC) by the USSR Academy of Sciences for his many contributions in and to the science of geology, the only such honor bestowed to a scientist outside the Soviet Union. In 1985, he was appointed Scientific Advisor to the Scientific Research Institute of Petroleum. Halbouty joined the Glenn H. McCarthy Interests in 1935, as Vice President of Operations and Chief Geologist and Petroleum Engineer. He opened his office as Consulting Geologist and Petroleum Engineer in 1937, and operated until called to active duty immediately after Pearl Harbor, as a Captain in the U. S. Army. As a cadet at Texas A&M, he had received a 2nd Lt. commission upon graduation and was very active in the Army Reserve until called to active duty. He was assigned to the Battalion Commanders and Staff Officers course at the famed infantry school in Fort Benning, Georgia, and graduated number one in his class. He was promoted to Major and assigned to the infantry school as an instructor in military science and tactics until called to Washington, D. C. in 1943, to serve on the Army-Navy Petroleum Board under the Joint Chiefs of Staff. His service earned him a promotion to Lt. Colonel. His duties were to find and obtain the necessary oil to fight the war effort for the Allies, which took him to many countries in search of adequate supplies. Detached from the service in September 1945, he returned to Houston successfully operated as an independent producer of petroleum until 1981, when he expanded his operations and founded the Michel T. Halbouty Energy Co. In addition, Halbouty also founded Halbouty Alaska Oil Company (HALASKO) IN 1957, of which he was the Chairman of the Board. He was the first independent to explore in Alaska, and the first independent to discover a gas field in Alaska. He was operating in an area with majors where no other independent dared to venture. He also explored in many frontier areas where others feared to tread. He became universally known as the most adventuresome of wildcatters. Halbouty's contributions to exploration geology are legendary.He delivered numerous speeches and lectures to scientific and lay groups all over the world on subjects pertinent to the oil industry, geology, and geophysics and/or engineering. He was such an articulate and well-informed scholar on his two disciplines; he was selected as a distinguished Lecturer for the Society of Petroleum Engineers of AIME (American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineer). He lectured in the United States, Europe, and Africa. Because of his expertise, he was also selected by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) as a Distinguished Lecturer the following year and appeared before scientific groups throughout the United States, Mexico, Great Britain, The Hague, Tunisia and Canada. He was named the first Distinguished Lecturer Emeritus for the Society of Petroleum Engineers of AIME and lectured in Europe. Halbouty was a member of numerous scientific, engineering, and technical societies and served as an officer, committee chairman, or board member on most of them. In addition to receiving the three highest awards bestowed by AAPG, he also received the highest honors conveyed by the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers. He was the only earth scientist to have achieved the distinction of being so honored by these two scientific and professional societies. One honor of which he was most proud was his election as President of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, the largest scientific organization in the world. He was also elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the Chinese Academy of Engineering. He was the author of over 400 articles, mainly on petroleum geology and petroleum engineering, including several contributions on petroleum for encyclopedias. Many of his scientific articles gained worldwide recognition and are used in university and college classrooms worldwide as required reading for geology and engineering students. An innumerable amount of his papers were translated worldwide into German, French and Spanish, as well as other languages. He also authored or co-authored several books, as well as edited numerous scientific publications. He was a consummate reader of the earth sciences and contributed significantly to the literature. He was the subject of three books, AHEAD OF HIS TIME: MICHEL T. HALBOUTY SPEAKS TO THE PEOPLE by James A. Clark, 1971; WILDCATTER, THE STORY OF MICHEL T. HALBOUTY AND THE SEARCH FOR OIL by Jack Donahue, 1979; and WAR WITHOUT END: THE STORY OF MICHEL T. HALBOUTY'S SEARCH FOR AMERICAN ENERGY SECURITY by Jack Donahue, 1990, as well as hundred of profile articles published in newspapers and magazines. In addition to his oil and gas operations, Halbouty owned extensive banking interests in the State of Texas, having been a founding director of the Continental Bank of Houston; was Chairman of the Board of Bank of the West and the First National Bank of San Angelo, Chairman of the Board of First National of Paris, Texas; Chairman of the Board of the First National Bank in Deport Texas; Chairman of the Board of North Side State Bank (now American Bank, Houston). He also served on the Board of Directors of Allied Bank of Texas. He was Public Interest Director and served on the Board of the Federal Home Loan Bank in Dallas. He endowed the Michel T. Halbouty Chair in Geology at Texas A&M University, as one of the largest individually endowed Chairs at A&M. He also established the Michel T. Halbouty Visiting Chair for the College of Geosciences, the only Visiting Chair at the University. For more than 50 years, he provided two scholarships annually in both geology and petroleum engineering at A&M. The recipients of his scholarships have and are pursuing their careers throughout the world. Since 1973, he provided for a rotating President's Endowed Scholarship that supports an honor student for four consecutive years. He was also a Regent Emeritus of the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents. Officials at TAMU gave Halbouty credit and praise for initiating the efforts to bring the Bush Presidential Library and M