AASP Primary Records Program

Where are They Now Series
Judy Lentin
AASP Newsletter 25(4): p. 14, 1992.

HERB SULLIVAN

In December of 1968 I was working at Amoco's Tulsa Research Center where the founding meeting was held. Shortly afterwards, I was presented with the opportunity to work on projects unrelated to my palynological training and delved into the emerging technology of plate tectonics and utilized those concepts to define possible exploration plays in the Pre-Jurassic of the Gulf Coast Basin and an interpretation of what might lie beyond and beneath the Tertiary sedimentary wedge of the Gulf of Mexico. These studies kindled a desire to seek a position in an operational office and I transferred to Amoco Canada in August 1971. I spent the next seventeen years in Calgary learning the skills of oil and gas exploration and experienced the exhilaration of the boom days of the industry followed by the frustration of the economic doldrums created by excessive government taxation and then the collapse of the oil prices. For the last five years I was Amoco Canada's Chief Geologist and was involved with Frontier frilling in the Arctic and East coast as well as the participating in the mature exploration phase of the Western Canada Basin. In June of 1988 I was Houston bound having been asked to assume a position as Manager of Exploration Technical Services responsible for providing technical support for the worldwide exploration program. I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of international operations and the management of a diverse interdisciplinary group, which applied their specialized skills to projects in some forty countries. Accepting an incentive early retirement program in early 1992 marked the end of my twenty eight-year career with Amoco Production Company. I have returned to Calgary to plan the next phase of my life which will involve selective consulting, indulging my grandchildren and a possible business venture in a totally new field.

I wish the society every success as it embarks on the next twenty five years. I believe few of the founding members will be surprised at the vitality of the present organization and its commitment to the goals defined at the inaugural meeting. The AASP has an increasingly inaugural role to play in attracting new talent to the field and to capitalize on the unique opportunity afforded to us by the rigorous application of palynology within the framework of basin analysis and the sequence stratigraphy. The accomplishments of the past will pale in comparison to the diversity and scale of future contributions.