ATT7'TT7QT' T71fT"TIT71~D department of geologicalsciences / the universityof texas at Austin J-M J— V V OJ—i-Lf X X J—iX\ NO. 17, SEPTEMBER 1968 AUSTIN, TEXAS / Editor: ANGEL D. LESHIKAR TheHalP.BybeeBuildinginMidland On July 26, 1968, the new office building for The Univer June at a cost of nearly $200,000, and it provides approxi sity of TexasLands inMidland was dedicated. mately 7900 square feetof space. The building was an outgrowth of many years of planning Thefirst of aseries of events to celebrate the dedication took cooperation between the Board of Regents, the Board for place on Thursday, July 25, when the Midland Chamber of Lease of University Lands, the Governor and the State Legis- Commerce hosted abanquet and reception honoring the 17- lature. Construction of the building was begun in October -member Bybee family, the UT System Board of Regents, 1967, and inMarch 1968 Regents of TheUniversity of Texas presidents and administrative officers of the schools in the System designated it the Hal P. Bybee Building in honor of system, and other special guests. At the banquet, Martin All- the man who first took the reins of the office which pays so day,President of the Chamber of Commerce, presented Mrs. many of the bills for UT and Texas A&M. This honor was Bybee, widow of thelate UT geologist,with an engravedlamp given to Dr. Bybee in view of the great work he performed made from an oil well core from University Lands. James duringthe formative years of petroleum exploration and pro- Zimmerman, Geologist in Charge of the Midland office of duction onUniversity Lands in West Texas.The building, lo- University Lands, gaveMrs.Bybee a color photograph of the cated at West Wall andB streets inMidland,was completedin new building (identical tothe onepicturedhere). September,1968 3 On Friday, July 26, the building was opened to the public the SantaRitaNo.1,of the BigLake Field inReaganCounty. for inspection, and at 5:30 p.m.the formal dedication cere- It was completed onMay 28, 1923, and was regarded as the monies took place. Frank Ikard, Member of the Board first majordiscovery of thePermianBasin. of Regents, introduced thedignitaries and special guests,and In 1929 the Board for Lease of University Lands was themain address was delivered by Chancellor Harry Ransom. formed by the Legislature.Itconsisted of two members of the Dr. Ransom had highpraise for the pioneer geologist, using Board of Regents and the Land Commissioner, and it was the words "unique" and "very special" in describing him. givencompleteauthority overoil and gasleasingand develop- "Hal Bybee was one of the few people who saw the University ment. In1949, the51st Legislature placed exclusive manage- and allof education as a whole.His influence benefitted every- ment and control of allother minerals under the Boardof Re- body and because of his foresight, education and Texas was gentsof TheUniversityof TexasSystem. provided with one of the richest endowments, oil and gas." Jerry Sadler, Commissioner of the General Land Office and Chairman of the Board for Lease, was unable to remain in Midland for the dedication ceremonies and his speech was read by Jim Zimmerman. Mr. Sadler pointed out that the Board for Lease furnished the necessary money for construc- tionof the building and that no taxmoney wasused,since the funds camefrom the oneper centpaidby the oilcompanies to defray lease sale expenses. General Earl Rudder, President of the Texas A&M System and former Land Commissioner, made a brief address. He said that the income from Univer- sity Lands had benefitted A&M tremendously.Inreference to his tenure in the Land Office, he stated that he relied entirely on Doc Bybee's advice and counsel when any question arose concerning oil and gas matters on University Lands. Frank Erwin, Jr.,Chairman of the Board of Regents,officially dedi- cated the building by presenting the keys to Floyd Shelton, Executive Director of Investments,Trusts and Lands for the UT System. In a brief speech,Mrs. Hal P. Bybee expressed her gratitude for the honor bestowed uponDr.Bybeeand the family. Dr. Bybee was so modest, she explained, that had he been present,he would not have realized that all of the praise was for him. Mrs. Bybee then cut the ribbon opening the building to the many visitors who viewed the structure. Fol- lowing the dedication ceremonies, the Past Presidents Club of the West Texas Geological Society sponsored a reception and The lateHal P. Bybee dinner honoring Drs. Samuel P. Ellison,Peter T. Flawn and — W.R.Muehlbergerof our owndepartment, and Drs. William The organization known as "University Lands Geology" McAnulty and William Strain of UT-E1Paso's Department of wasestablished in June 1929 withheadquarters inSan Angelo, Geology. and Hal Bybee was the first geologist in charge of the mam- We areindebted to Jim Zimmerman for providing us with moth operation which looks after the rich University land in details of the dedication and with the information below on West Texas.In1937, the office wasmoved to Midland which UniversityLands,based onhistoricalresearchby BerteHaigh, was morenearly the centerof oil activity. DocBybee was suc- which Jim had prepared for the dedication brochure. ceeded by Berte R.Haigh, who today servesas Consultant to University Lands, by 1964, The State Constitution, as rewrittenin 1876,provided for and later Harward Fisher. In James B.Zimmerman, the present Geologist in Charge, took early establishment of The Universityof Texas with "onemil- over.Jim had been hired as Junior Geologist by Doc in June lion acres of the then available Public Domain." In 1883, the 1950, two daysprior toreceivinghisMaster's degreefromUT Commissioner of the General Land Office reported that two (Doc sat on Jim's thesis committee!). Laddie Long, Super- millionacresof landhad beenreturned to the Stateby therail- vising Geologist and second incommand of UniversityLands, roads which considered them too worthless to survey. The graduated witha B.S. ingeology fromUTin 1952 and joined 1883 Legislature equally divided that land between the Free the Midland office in 1964. Public School Fund and University Lands. Thus, the Univer- Since the legendary Santa Ritablew inin 1923, morethan sity ended up with atotalland grantof morethan two million 943 million barrelsof oil havebeenproduced fromUniversity acres. Lands. The annual productionis now 39million barrels from The first discovery well onthe vastUniversity domain was 1781 leases containing more than 5600 wells in 231 fields. If 4 September, 1968 University Lands wereaseparatestate, it would rank tenth in in June 1929 as Geologist in Charge of University Lands, a the nation in oil production. Many of today's leasing pro- post heheld for morethan 20 years. — cedures of the State of Texas wereformulated as a direct out- In 1936 another job was added to his duties that of Pro- growth of Doc Bybee'sphilosophy for optimum development fessor of Geology at The University of Texas.From1937 to of University Lands. Over a period of 28 years, more than 1941he served asChairman of theDepartmentof Geologyand $200,000,000 has been added to The University of Texas during the period 1936-57 saw its staff double and the total Permanent Fundfrom oil and gas rentals,bonuses and royal- enrollment become thelargest in the country.11l healthforced ties. In the last forty-five years, oil and gas exploration and him to relinquish his post as Geologist in Charge of Univer- development has increased the mineral value of the lands a sity Lands in 1954, but he remained as a consultant and as a hundredfold. The lands today are attracting the mining pros- professor until his death onMarch 30,1957, at the ageof 69. pectorbecause of recent discoveries of sulphur and other min- Doc held memberships in manynational societies. He be- erals in the West Texas area.And, as Jim Zimmerman says, came amember of AAPG in 1919 and was presented with a "all this from lands which our forefathers considered worth- LifeMembership inthat organizationin1952. In1956 hewas less!" elected to Honorary Membership in AAPG, one of only 16 The man chiefly reponsible for the success of University teaching geologists ever to receive that distinction. He was a Lands wasborn on a farm nearRochester, Indiana on Janu- Fellow of the Texas Academy of Science and in 1926 was ary17, 1888. He graduated in 1908 with a B.S. degreefrom elected a Fellow of GSA. Rochester College. He received from Indiana University the In1953 Bybee and his associatesin the Department of Ge- A.B. degreein 1912, theA.M.in 1913 and the Ph.D. in1915. ology established the Geology Foundation. Shortly after his death, the HalP. BybeeMemorialFund part In January 1914 he accepted aninstructorship ingeology at was created as a of theFoundation dedicated toprovide fundsfor scientific and UT and on September 1of that year he wasmarried to Ruth professional advancement for thegeologyfaculty. Woolery of Bloomington,Indiana.Four children resultedfrom — L.T.Barrowhas writtenof Doc "Evaluation ofBybeeas a that union,and theyin turnhaveproduced 12 grandchildren. geologistranged from agood'practical' geologistby those who Doc taught at UT from 1914-1925 and had advanced from had only limited contacts withhim to an 'outstanding' geolo- Instructor to Associate Profesor. He summer introduced the gist by those who knew him best.He would have enjoyed en- field campin1917 and saw it growin35 yearsfrom a nucleus gaging in considerable research, but he placed people ahead of 11students to include more than 200 students each sum- of geology,and he thought his mostimportant duty layin the mer.Another Bybeeinnovation was the offeringof a course in developmentof students." petroleum geology, among the first of such courses to be DocBybeeis remembered as agreatmanand agreatTexan. taught in this country. In1925 heleft UT to become District The HalP.Bybee Building commemorates his service to the Geologist for the Dixie Oil Company atSan Angelo,returning Universityand to theState.