THE HISTORY OF GEOPHYSICAL PROSPECTING
PART ELEVEN - DE GOLYER

Chapter 27  -  The Legend of Mr. De

During the period 1926-1927, Dr. Norman Ricker had built a set of mechanical seismographs for the Union Sulphur Company, which were used on a shooting party for the joint operations venture into the state of Louisiana for the Union Sulphur Company and the Calcasieu Oil Company. During this two year period, Dr. Ricker was retained as a supervisory seismic consultant. In 1926, this refraction crew had discovered the Bayou Blue salt dome and the Bayou des Glaises salt dome, both in Iberville Parish. The two Bayou domes were of medium depth and fan shots over five miles in length were necessary in order to establish salt velocities.

Since Union Sulphur and Calcasieu Oil were also employing a Mintrop party, there had been instituted a weekly conference at which the company officials and their geologists met with the geophysicists, Mintrop and Ricker. Dr. Ricker did more than his share of talking at these meetings and would make such suggestions as occurred to him about how the refraction methods could be improved. At such a get-together, Ricker made the recommendation, as diplomatically as possible, that some means should be worked out by which the Mintrop crew could increase the length of its shots to five miles. Dr. Mintrop rose to his feet, glared at Dr. Ricker, and exploded:

"Are you trying to tell me something about geophsics?“

Both Mintrop and De Golyer were considered somewhat in the light of oraeIes on geophysical matters. In De Golyer's case he never took himself too seriously and pomposity was no part of his nature. Which does not mean that he did not enjoy this authoritative stature; De Golyer was quite pleased with his position as number one earth scientist.

When the Texaco Development Corporation was about to go to court in Houston in early 1937, charging geophysical infringement by the Sun Oil Company of Texaco's Mintrop and McCollum patents; the plaintiff's biggest worry was that Dr. Mintrop would lose his temper under rigorous cross-examination and perhaps create a bad impression by being cited for contempt of court.

Fessenden, Mintrop and De Golyer, descending in that order, were all known for sudden flashes of anger. Fessenden and De Golyer could on occasion subject an employee to a blistering dressing-down. Fessenden in a court of law, and he had had much court experience defending his numerous patents, could be cold, factual and articulate. De Golyer before a Congressional Committee could be cold, factual and inspiring. Mintrop's relations with his employees was kindly and friendly but he had no patience with the law. An opposition attorney could stir up his emotions and lead him to violent speech. What a classical show it would have been if Mintrop and Fessenden had crossed legal swords, each striving to prove the superiority of his own seismic methode The suit came to trial in 1937, at which time Fessenden had been dead for over four years. The suit was settled out of court, so there was never any occasion for fireworks on Mintrop's part.

Mintrop liked champagne and pretty girls; De Golyer liked whisky and books. Both men smoked cigars and in Mintrop's case it did his English no good when a stogie was perched in one corner of his mouth while he talked and gestured. Both men were more than a little fond of card games. De Golyer's favorite game was bridge. When Amerada had division offices in both Tulsa  and Fort Worth and four or more Amerada employees were taking the night train from one city to the other, and one of the four was Oe Golyer, one could count on lots of bridge and very little sleep.

When De Golyer was alone, he would pick up a book and read it until three or four in the morning. He did not seem to require very much sleep. Close friends called De Golyer "De." Book dealers all over the world were alerted to be on the lookout for this volume and that collection. When De Golyer began the serious acquisition of books in 1914, he was designated far and wide by these book seIlers as "Mr.De." Rare book dealers became accustomed to De Golyer spending long hours searching in the dusty corners of their establishments. Mutual interest in books made for warm friendships. Two dealers on the west coast were unusually fortunate in being able to locate a wide variety of books for De Golyer's library. The Los Angeles dealer was Jake Zeitlin of Zeitlin and Ver Brugge, booksellers. The San Francisco dealer was Lew Lengfeld of Books, Inc. Once while in San Francisco, De Golyer purchased a small but valuable pamphlet from Lew Lengfeld and told him to mail it to his home in Dallas.

"It's small, Mr. De," said Lew, "Why don't you stick it in your pocket and take it with you?"

"Oh, no," replied De Golyer quickly, "I don't want anything to happen to it and I'm going by plane, you know.“

 A few cocktails could make De Golyer into the most sparkling of conversationalists. There is only one occasion recorded in which De Golyer became angry while drinking. The vitriol came forth in a brilliant display of criticism and when we report the occasion, at the proper time and place, I think you will agree that the outburst was justifiable. De Golyer was gregarious but he was also happy to spend long hours with his books. De Golyer made a point of leaving his business problems at the office. His long hours in his library were exclusively devoted to the particular problem at hand. He opened a book and was at once in a bright new world.

The qualities De Golyer admired most in other men's thinking were curiosity, integrity and imagination. The polite part of any conversation bored him. He made a sharp distinction between talk and conversation. When a conversation was "getting somewhere," you would notice his face light up with a peculiar quizzical expression and he would delight you with a brand of good sense and broad insight, delivered in a humorously grumpy manner. His favorite expletive was „Goddamit."

De Golyer was fascinated by the role that luck plays in human destiny. To him there were two kinds of millionaires, the "silver spoons" and the "rabbit's feet." He once said, "The talent for rnaking money is not likely to mean a talent for leading a useful life and it is even less likely to mean a talent for telling someone else how to lead a useful life.“

According to Everette De Golyer, "Nobody worth a damn ever thinks of himself as suceessful. All he thinks of are his missed opportunities." Once more harping on the matter of luck he opined, "I hate to tell you how many times l’ve made money by going against my own judgment." In a speech, before the Texas Academy of Science in Dallas he listed all the qualifications that go to make a good geologist. "Then," he said as an afterthought, "make sure he is lucky, that is the most important quality of all. There is nothing worse than a snake-bit technical man.“

In 1941 De Golyer put $22,500 into "The Saturday Review," after talking to Norman Cousins for five minutes. There was never any contract, the deal was sealed with a handshake. How many other scientists would have fitted in so neatly as Chairman of the Board of the Saturday Review of Literature? In 1955, the magazine's circulation having gone from 20,000 to 200,000 De Golyer sold back his stock. Not once during the fifteen year period did De Golyer dictate a policy, ask a favor, nor use his position to have a single editorial changed or a single article revised. It took a De Golyer to have such a sacred view of the freedom of the press.

Two days before his death, Everette Lee De Golyer spent the evening at the Petroleum Club in Dallas, which was at that time situated next to the Baker Hotel. Three years before he had lost one eye. Now the other eye was growing dim. He needed help from Mrs. De Golyer to recognize old friends who came over to his table to greet him during dinner at the Club. De Golyer had for the past five years been waging a losing battle against aplastic anemia. He had suffered two strokes in recent months and when he had asked the doctor about the chances of paralysis had received a noncommittal answer.

On the last evening at home, "De" was in his beloved library, reading as best he could with the aid of a magnifying glass. On Friday morning, December 14, 1956, De Golyer had a visitor in his Dallas office. A young geologists, Mortimer Kline, Jr., had come to sit at the feet of the great man and hear his secret of success. Mortimer Kline, Sr., a Los Angeles attorney, had long been a friend of De Golyer. The old geologist, aged 70, and the young geologist, aged 23, chatted away about life, luck, success and, of course, the art of geology. Shortly after eleven, Mortimer Kline, Jr., thanked "Mr. De" for his time, his courtesy and for his advice. He took his leave.

A few minutes later, alone in his office, De Golyer took his own life with the aid of a 38 caliber revolver. He left no note nor did he give any indication to anyone that he meant to put an end to his suffering. "He had taken all a man could take," Mrs. De Golyer explained to their children.