Alfred Roy Danforth

Al and I worked together at ION/GXT for almost 6 years. His expertise on African, South Atlantic, and Brazilian geologic history and evolution was very deep and helpful to everyone who worked in these areas. In addition, his expertise with graphic displays, especially with Geographic Information Systems was unparalleled and we all came to him for assistance in that area. He shared his knowledge freely and was always friendly. We took several trips to Brazil for business meetings, his expertise with technical information in client presentations was always first rate. I will miss him as a professional friends and colleague.
Naresh Kumar
Austin, Texas

I was saddened to hear of Al's passing. He and I met in 1998, the year I joined Texaco. Al was my mentor at Texaco, but as it turned out he also a mentored me outside of work as I became acquainted by my new life in Houston. We worked together, fished together and Al even introduced me to my wife. He holds a very dear place in our hearts. I am grateful to have known him and to have been his friend.

From Linda Sternbach
Al Danforth was an important mentor to me while I was working Offshore Africa for Globex Energy. I was a frequent attendee to the International Explorationists Group meetings while Al was chairing the group ,and also attended the Africa Conferences he organized. Al was very popular as a leader because he was a "people person" and always interested in what other geoscientists were learning and discovering. Meetings and networking were in this life force and he enjoyed the company of other geologists working his favorite plays in Africa and conjugate margins in South America.

From Nick Cameron
I never worked directly with Al, but did meet him now and then (we were struck by lightning once on a KLM flight to Houston) and I knew of the huge importance of his work. However, I wanted to write to record that Mike Rego, a colleague of mine, told me how useful Al had been in locating lost drill cores from a Texaco well in Tanzania and explaining Texaco's grand strategy for finding oil in East Africa

From Bill Dickson
Ray Bate and Al alternated as Chairs of the PESGB (now EGSGB) & HGS Africa Conference from its inception in 2002 through 2013 with Al chairing five conferences, as you wrote in the obituary. However, Al continued to contribute as an advisor to the Technical Chair on subsequent conferences.
Mark Odegard was VP and Manager of US Operations for GETECH from 1999 - March 2005 during which time Al contributed to a joint study my company did with GETECH. Mark hosted a few company lunches that included you and Al; Jim Granath and other contributors to GETECH's non-exclusive studies. I mostly continued that practice until about five years ago and recall that you and Al were present a few times.
Al's consultancy to DIGs ran through much 1999 and into early 2000. He then found himself working with ION-GXT on their SPAN programs along the margins of India. Through the ION-GXT connection and his own deep knowledge of African geology, Al contributed to the initial Ed Purdy Memorial Project, Exploration Fabric of Africa (EFAfrica.com) until late 2011 or early 2012. EFA was a joint project with AAPG and Lynx Information Systems

From Steve Henry
Al and I were introduced to each other when I was writing West African sales brochures for WesternGeo and just after he retired from Texaco in 1998. We both worked on that project which led to our first publication together using Western's, at that time, NEW Deepwater Seismic Grid, for offshore Angola.
That was the first of over 30 publications and presentations we authored over a 15-year period of working together. If I had to summarize all our work and time together in one word, that word would be FUN.
Al and I had a lot of fun, especially working on the GXT / ION Deep Imaging Long Offset Prestack Depth Migrated (SPAN) data. Being the first to see and interpret this data was FUN! We were able to generate new ideas on petroleum systems in the deepwater of the South Atlantic and how the South Atlantic opened. Al's recollection of old exploration wells from his days of being a regional geologist kept us on track with defensible interpretations at the many meetings we attended.
We traveled together to a lot of meetings, and had FUN! Eventually, Al used his organizational skills to put monthly meetings and conferences together and became very active in the International Houston Geological Society. Al took this as one of his missions and in 2004 he was fundamental in starting the PESGB / HGS Africa Conferences that still meets annually.
Since our days of working together (1998-2012) we would still keep in contact, and I would give Al a call just to hear his voice. We would update each other on what former colleagues were up to and, of course, how our families were doing. That too was FUN!
Al was not just a good scientist and colleague, but a devoted husband, father, and one of my best friends. I'm going to miss Al, and our conversations. I'll fondly remember all the FUN times we had doing what other people called work.