David Worthington, a significant contributor to the AAPG Foundation and an officer and leader of both the Foundation and the Trustee Associates, has been named the recipient of this year’s L. Austin Weeks Memorial Medal.
The award, given in recognition of extraordinary philanthropy and service in advancing the mission of the AAPG Foundation, is the Foundation’s highest honor.
Worthington will receive the award during the opening session of the AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, which will be held May 31-June 3 in Denver.
Worthington, the former CEO of TGS-Calibre and chairman of TGS-NOPEC, and his wife, Beverly, now reside in Naples, Fla.
A Foundation Trustee Associate since 2001, Worthington has been both vice chairman and secretary-treasurer for the group, as well as chair of the 2014 Trustee Associates Site Selection Committee.
He has served as a member of the AAPG Foundation’s Member of the Corporation since 2013.
He and his wife, Beverly, also have established two named grants with the Foundation’s Grants-in-Aid program – the David W. Worthington Named Grant and the David W. Worthington Family Named Grant, both created and awarded annually to deserving graduate students
studying paleontology.
A native of Worcester, Mass., Worthington received a bachelor’s degree in geology from Marietta College in Marietta, Ohio, and a master’s degree in geophysics from Virginia Tech University.
He began his career with a 12-year stint at Shell Oil, eventually becoming exploration manager of Shell’s Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Division. He left Shell to form his own offshore exploration firm, which transitioned into TGS Geophysical Co.
That company later became TGS-Calibre and, through a merger, TGS-NOPEC, where Worthington served as chairman from 1999-2004, remaining on the board through June 2007.
The L. Austin Weeks Memorial Medal was established in 2008, and Worthington is the award’s eighth recipient. Others have been:
- 2008 – Marta Weeks
- 2009 – T. Boone Pickens
- 2010 – Larry Funkhouser
- 2011 – Jack C. Threet
- 2012 – William J. “Bill” Barrett
- 2013 – Robert “Bob” Gunn
- 2014 – James A. Hartman