• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

Memorial to Leslie Madison Clark 1898-1976 E. W. SHAW 928 Elizabeth Rd. S. W., Calgary, Alberta T25 1M9, Canada Les Clark, one of the great pioneer petroleum geolo­ gists of North America and Fellow of the Geological Society of America since 1952, passed away at Cal­ gary, Alberta, on July 29, 1976. Les was born on April 9, 1898, at Woodward, Oklahoma, where his parents Roland B. And Ella (Sherpy) Clark had homesteaded after the Cherokee strip was opened for settlement. After some devastat­ ing vicissitudes, his family moved to West Los Angeles where Les grew up and received his secondary school­ ing at Santa Monica High School. After this, a mutu­ ally fortunate meeting came about between Les and J. E. “ Brick” Elliott, Chief Geologist for Shell Oil. It was the beginning of a lifelong friendship and a de­ voted and distinguished career in petroleum geology for young Clark. Brick gave him a job as rodman on a geological field party and later encouraged him to go to college after it became obvious that he had found a winner. Les, who loved the outdoors and was an ardent rock and fossil collector, knew at once that this was the life for him. In fact, he was amazed that one could make a living at such pure adventure. For instance, he spent the summer of 1918 in Alaska assisting F. E. Vaughan, a Shell Company geologist, on a reconnaissance assignment. Over fifty years later he vividly described this great adventure to me as if he had just returned. In fact, he returned to enlist in the Army for World War I, but the Armistice in November soon ended yet another adventure. Returning to his job with Shell, he applied for admission to Stanford University, entering in the fall of 1920. In the meantime, he prepared himself with courses in mathematics and the sciences at Los Angeles Polytech. By virtue of this background, hard work, and consuming interest, Les graduated from Stanford at Christmas time in 1923. In addition to summer work with Shell, he did all manner of jobs to pay his own way. His first acquaintance at Stanford and close friend thereafter was H. (Howdie) M. Kirk. We are indebted to Kirk for the detail of these early years which we have merely tried to highlight because of space limitations. After graduation Les returned to Shell, but this time as a geologist. His first assign­ ment was to map the geology of the foothills at the south end of the San Joaquin Val­ ley. Subsequently, he mapped the Santa Ana mountains and foothills in Orange County, the South Mountain-Oak Ridge area in Ventura County, the Santa Barbara coastal area, the Santa Ynez Mountains from Santa Barbara to Point Conception, and the Santa Maria basin. During this period Les established himself as an oil finder. In addi­ tion to several discoveries for which he received a token bonus, he recommended other structures that were not followed up but were subsequently productive. 2 THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OE AMERICA The depression caught up with Les in July 1931, when his services were terminated. He registered at Stanford for two years of graduate studies, but he had completed only one quarter when the call came from Shell to supervise a core-drilling and related pro­ gram in the swamps of Java and Sumatra. This lasted sixteen months after which he returned to California where he applied similar methods to supplement surface geologi­ cal mapping. For the field seasons of 1936 and 1937, Les was assigned to a reconnaissance of Montana east of the Rocky Mountains and to the foothills of Alberta and British Columbia. Working down the Peace River by boat, he made his first observations that contributed to the notable gas discoveries in the Fort St. John area of British Columbia some 15 years later. In 1938 Les was transferred from Shell’s California headquarters to Wichita, Kan­ sas, as District Geologist and from there in 1939 to Centralia, Illinois, as Exploration Manager of the Eastern Area. This area included not only the Illinois basin but also Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tenessee. He had an active hand in several oil discov­ eries in Illinois before being transferred to Calgary in 1943 as Shell’s Exploration Man­ ger for Western Canada. With his strong background in structural geology, he reveled in the complicated thrust belt of the Alberta foothills and was credited for the Jumping Pound gas discovery in 1944—a field with 3/4 trillion cubic feet that has been the main supply for the city of Calgary for many years. By 1948 Les and his family had established deep roots in Calgary and, facing imminent transfer, he retired from Shell after twenty-four years of service to become Exploration Manager for the Barnsdall-Honolulu-Seaboard group for the next three years. During this time be built up an acreage spread including a substantial part of the then undiscovered Pembina oil field. In the meantime, Frank McMahon, one of Canada’s great entrepreneurs, had a vision of building a gas pipeline from the Peace River area of northeastern British Columbia to Vancouver and the U.S. Northwest. With this in mind, he had taken out a large land spread but he didn’t have any gas. In response to this problem, he hired Les Clark in May 1951 and made him Vice President of Exploration for Pacific Petro­ leums, Ltd. This was perhaps Les’s greatest challenge up to that time. Structures were obscure, reservoirs were lean, and seismic records were of poor quality. The initial gas discovery in the vicinity of Fort St. John is a fascinating story of piecing together frag­ ments of information of various sorts by means of geological sense born of long ex­ perience and keen observation. Suffice it to say that the 600-mile Westcoast gas pipeline was built and began delivering gas to Vancouver and the U.S. Northwest in 1957. Mean­ while Pacific’s exploration programs continued and additional gas discoveries were made, including West Buick Creek, Jedney, Bubbles, East Laprise, and Pouce Coupe South. More than anyone else, Les Clark put British Columbia on the oil and gas map and turned Pacific Petroleums into an important resource company. Les retired from Pacific Petroleums in 1962 but was retained by McMahon as a consultant to Westcoast Transmission Company until 1968. During this period he trav­ eled widely to such places as Syria, Israel, Libya, Germany, Jamaica, Cuba, Australia, and the Arctic Islands. Even after final retirement in 1968, wherever he went he looked at the rocks, the sea shells, and everything pertaining to natural history. MEMORIAL TO LESLIE MADISON CLARK 3 In addition to his outstanding record as an oil and gas finder for his employers, Les made immense contributions to the profession through the geological societies. The following is a chronological list of his more important activities and awards: 1926, joined American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG); 1940, chairman, hotel and registration committee for AAPG annual meeting, Chicago; 1941, president, Illinois Geological Society; 1947, president, Alberta Society of Petroleum Geologists; 1945 to 1949, chairman, Alberta Symposium Committee; 1950, general chairman, AAPG Re­ gional Meeting at Banff, Alberta; 1953, chairman, Medal awards committee for the AAPG; 1953-54, vice president, AAPG; 1954, editor, AAPG Ralph Rutherford Memo­ rial Volume “ Western Canada Sedimentary Basin” ; 1952, Fellow, Geological Society of America; 1964, Honorary Life Member, Association of Professional Engineers, Geologists and Geophysicists of Alberta; 1971, Honorary member, Alberta Society of Petroleum Geologists; 1976, Honorary member AAPG. Although a selected bibliography of Les Clark is appended hereto, some comments must be made to demonstrate his great energy and what became an almost intuitive interpretive ability. From the time he arrived in Calgary, he took up weekend mountain climbing in the Front Ranges of the Canadian Rockies on both sides of the Trans- Canada Highway not only for the sheer exhilaration, but also to map the geology and topography for the benefit of local and visiting geologists. With the guidebook for the 1950 AAPG regional meeting at Banff, Les included a cross section across the foothill belt and eastern ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This was the first published cross sec­ tion of this region that has stood up conceptually to this day. Certainly Les was ahead of his time in understanding the style of the Canadian Rockies. Incidentally, the big Jumping Pound West gas field structures were predicted on the cross section. In 1954 Les published a cross section through the Clarke Range of southern Alberta and Flat­ head Valley of southeastern British Columbia in the Fourth Annual Guidebook of the Alberta Society of Petroleum Geologists. The large Waterton gas field structures were clearly predicted on this section without the benefit of seismic data. The field was dis­ covered in 1957. In reflecting on the geological career of Les Clark and his remarkable oil and gas finding record from the present perspective of a progressively serious energy shortage, I feel a compulsive obligation to promote his life story as an inspiration to the present generation of Earth scientists. Times and methods have changed, but his kind of dedi­ cation and total absorption still represent the best hope for the future, not only in terms of future discoveries but also in terms of pure enjoyment and personal satisfaction. While working out of Santa Ana, California, Les met Dorris Haag, a school teacher from Hanford. They were married in 1927. Although a very competent person in her own field, Dorris devoted her life thereafter to Les’s career and the upbringing of their children.

Load more

  4

Copy Link