AASP Primary Records Program

William T. Morgan

I was working on my Master's degree in micropaleontology at the University of Oklahoma when I made the acquaintance of Virgil Wiggins. He was going off on a tangent from foraminifers into an area little known to me of dinoflagellates, spores and pollen. In our micro lab in between licking and sticking forams and ostracods our conversation turned to Palynology. I learned that there were several who were majoring in it. Bob Clarke, Phil Davis, Richard Hedlund and Jim Urban were all declared majors at either the masters or Ph.D. level as were Don Nelson, Jim Dempsey and Reggie Harris Jr. As I had a teaching assistantship I figured I could work in an introductory course in Palynology. The University of Oklahoma had hired the pioneer in stratigraphic palynology, Dr. R. W. Wilson who was the first to apply palynology to oil exploration.

Needless to say my work on my Master's suffered as I devoted myself to the new field of endeavor. Not only was there course work in Palynology but I had to minor in botany. Eventually I received my Master's degree but was completely engrossed in the pursuit of Palynology. That semester William Sargeant came to O. U, on a sabbatical and enforced the thrill of scientific research in what was still nearly an unknown area. Dr. Venkatachala came to work with "Doc" as we lovingly called Dr. Wilson, and then Tony Jenkins an authority on Chitinozoa did a course with "Doc." The number of people following palynology was increasing with the arrival of Tom Bond, Ed Dolly, Bill Edwards, Ken Bordeaux, Stephen Hall and Jim Ruffin.

This was a marvelous time as we all had offices in close proximity and when something new was sighted the call went out and we all poured in to scrutinize and discuss the newly found spore or pollen. As we had diverse thesis covering quite a few areas and ages, there was always something buzzing. As time went on the early students were replace by future students and we were shuffled off into various oil companies. We elected to not go to work where an earlier graduate was already on board as we didn't want to go in as a junior worker under them.

I went to work for Humble during the summerr of 1964. This was great as I was given hands on experience and not just theory. During this summer I studied a reviewed all my course work for my Doctoral exams after which I threw my self into my dissertation, "Palynology of a portion of the El Reno Group (Permian) Southwest Oklahoma." This followed Dr. Wilson's great work on the Permian Flower Pot Shale.

I joined Humble Oil, a Refining Company (shortly to be renamed Exxon) in the research center in Houston. There was a staff of many palynologists, Bill Elsik, Bill Fairchild, Jim Morgan, Joan Stough, and later, transferred from Tulsa, Lew Stover and Jack Burgess. The first year or so was routine investigations on surface material. Then I was assigned to do the Paleogene of Alaska. Followed by the Timor Project which I partnered with Howard Stacey. Upon completion of that study I was asked to train as a coccolith specialist under the tutelage of Dr. Lee A. Smith. Before I had really completed this study Exxon asked for someone to go to France and I volunteered and so the great adventure was born.

I arrived in Bordeaux, France the first of June, 1970. Finding suitable lodging was a problem as I was limited on how much rent I was allowed to pay. There was nothing seen that was livable at that price so I said "up my housing allowance or ship me home." We found something immediately, which pissed off the French. I was assigned to West Africa and we were actively drilling there. Staff palynologist Jean Pierre Verdier, Yves Caro and Roger Davey were working the North Sea at this time and were trying to develop a portable Lab to take to the rig as the turn around time from recovery to response was too slow. This new portable lab was the answer to the turn around problem. I built a portable lab for the use in Africa, and it was installed aboard the Glomar Grand Isle, offshore Portuguese Guinea. This portable lab opened up the whole well site spectrum as it could be transferred from one well site to the next, easily.

We now could give immediate information to the well-site geologist as to the stratigraphy. In the Ivory Coast we were based in a garage on shore so after work we were able to go to the native markets in search of masks, beads, etc.

IVCO 4 was a discovery well and on my shift back to Bordeaux the geologist sent the side wall cores with me for analysis. At the airport they announced "Mr. Morgan, come to baggage," so I found my luggage surrounded by armed troops and a young officer in charge telling me that I was smuggling arms. "Out of Ivory Coast? Be serious!" And he was. "Open your suitcase!" I opened it and flung the top back and the guys with the machine guns all jumped and threw down on me! "Wait a minute! All I have is dirty laundry and side wall cores (which was Greek to them)." I unwrapped a jar from a dirty undershirt and showed them. "Gelatinite," they hollered! Now I knew that this was getting serious so I told them I was drilling an oil well for the Ivory Coast and these samples had to get to Bordeaux or there won't be any oil in the Ivory Coast. I unscrewed a lid and told them to smell...oil! They escorted me onto the plane and I could breathe a sigh. Two weeks later (during which the discovery had been announced), as I returned I saw this group of soldiers lining the way from the plane to the waiting area. I've seen them do this for visiting dignitaries so I waited until everyone was off and expected the troops to be gone but I stepped out to a saluting young officer who had seen me off. He whisked me past customs, past the Esso manager waiting for me, and took me to the Hotel Ivoire in a motorcade! He walked up to the desk clerk and said "This is Dr. Morgan! He discovered our oil!" I had a hard time explaining to the manager what had taken place.

I knew most of the native merchants in the market as searching their stalls was all there was to do other than drink. One evening Koni Siriki came and said "I need you to come to my village". "O.K. This week end maybe". "No, now, it is very important." So we drove into the jungle to a group of huts. I knew most of the fellows there. As we stood and talked one of them said "The Chief!" A little old man with only a few teeth came in an was introduced He was having difficulty with the young men as they thought he was too old and out of touch with today's world. They had convinced him to consult me. "Do you know why you are here?" "No, Koni said it was important so I came." "Do you believe him?" "Yes," they all replied I talked over their problems to their satisfaction and as it ended the chief gave me a ceremonial hand shake and called number one wife forward who kissed me on both cheeks. Koni stared in disbelief! "Do you know what that means?" "Not really". "He has taken you as his son!" "You are a member of the Ashanti people now, and you are our brother." The next evening the geological manager and I were having a drink on the terrace and across the street the vendors of the market saw me. They gave a shout and all came running up shaking my hand and laughing to see me. In a moment they went back to their stands... " O. K. Morgan, what now," says my bewildered boss?

Garissa 1 was drilled in the Sabena Desert of Kenya at the Somali Border. The temperature would climb to over 130 degrees during the day. I hadn't rained here in nine years. The third night there was a tremendous rain storm which lasted almost four hours. The next morning you couldn't even notice it had happened. The next night there was an inundation of billions of May flies so thick they had difficulty to continue drilling. Dawn they were gone. The next night millions of small brown beetles and it repeated itself every night for seven nights. Never were there two species on the same night. Each had its own life cycle and didn't interfere with the other. By the third day all of the trees we thought were dead were flowering and grass covered the plains and gazelles were grazing. I'll never know where they came from.

The village of Garissa is noted for having woven milk buckets of great charm. As they were running tubing a quick foray into town was planned to buy some buckets from the natives. When we arrived in town everyone jumped out and went charging about frightening, the local habitants. I thought it was futile so I went into the general store and met the owner who spoke perfect English. We had a good long conversation when he asked "Would you fancy tea?" "Why not?" As we sat sipping tea he asked me why we came to the village and I told him that we had heard of the great beauty of the Garissa buckets and wanted to buy one. He signaled his helper who ran out the back door. In a moment six young women in colorful saris entered carrying buckets. "I only want one. Let me make a choice." So, one by one they knelt down and presented me with their bucket to inspect. At this time, all the other guys had given up and retreated to the store only to find me with six maidens offering me their buckets. I selected one and asked him, "what is a just price?" I bought it and then I asked "Could the other girls sell to my friends? That night in the mess hall I heard one Brit telling, "and then we walked in and here was Morgan sitting on plush cushions drinking tea with six young maidens kneeling in front of him just like a bloody Maharaja!"

I left the well for Nairobi where I 1uckily got on a camera safari. There was one place left and I got it. We were in a Volkswagen minibus... The guide/driver, myself and nine Pan Am hostesses. That story, my friend, I can only tell with a gin and tonic in my hand.

Esso drilled 24 wells offshore Ivory Coast and numerous other onshore Mali, Chad, Kenya, Senegal. While the experience of working in these foreign countries was sort of like "Indiana Jones of palynology', the most interesting had to be my place on the Exxon Arctic Expedition to Svalbard and the northern arctic region. I was able to collect samples from the entire Triassic which was exposed like a collection of books setting upon their ends. This permitted the precise age dating of the exposed section. It is s sequence predominantly composed of bisaccate pollen and small number of spores. The number of genera of bissacate pollen and their numerous new genera and species presented an outstanding challenge. With this zonation it was possible to correct a zonation proposed by the Soviet geologist for the region.

Now I am retired and following my work as a palynologic consultant where I am working for other oil companies. I stay active and enjoy the pleasures of retirement which permit me to spend my summers in my painting studio on the banks of the Dordogne River living the good life in France. Palynology has been good to me.