Vote Delay Saved Member's Life

When Sam Epstein left the oil patch in 1985, not only did he remain an AAPG member, but his contacts and knowledge of the industry helped him achieve a measure of success as an investment adviser with Morgan Stanley in Houston.

That led to a job in the firm's flagship office in the World Trade Center in New York City -- seven months before a terrorist truck bomb rocked the building and killed six people.

Epstein remained with the company and was mere minutes from his 73rd-floor office when terror struck again this past Sept. 11, this time with catastrophic results.

"For the first two weeks, I couldn't even speak about it," Epstein said.

But, interviewed five weeks after the disaster, Epstein felt composed enough to describe his experience. He spoke fondly of AAPG friends who called almost immediately to check on his welfare, and discussed how his geologic training and experience brought him to the place that has become known as Ground Zero -- and helped him cope with the aftermath.

An AAPG member since 1979, Epstein was "the real thing" as a geologist working the oil patch.

He earned his bachelor's degree at Brooklyn College and his master's from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and his thesis entailed working as a diver in the Red Sea -- a project under his professor, Gerald Friedman -- on modern processes of carbonate diagenesis. After graduating, he worked successively for Cities Service, Getty and Texaco. He published several papers with AAPG concerning his work offshore on the east and west coasts -- including work on the Monterey Formation and Point Arguello off the California coast, and the elusive offshore Mesozoic reef of the U.S. offshore East Coast.

In 1985, the "big shakeout" in the petroleum industry impelled Epstein to consider other career options.

"I had to diversify," he said, and he headed to Morgan Stanley in Houston as an investment adviser, where his oil industry expertise and contacts helped him become one of the office's most successful producers.

He went "home" in 1992, transferring to Morgan Stanley's New York office.

"I always wanted to work in the World Trade Center," Epstein said. "It was a big building; it was exciting."

He gave up his private office and secretary in Houston to work in the 73rd-floor "bullpen," ranking 40th among 60 brokers because, as he said, "I like challenges."

Welcome to New York

In February 1993, seven months after his arrival, a bomb exploded in the underground garage of One World Trade Center, creating a 22-foot-wide, five-story-deep crater. Six people were killed and more than 1,000 were injured.

"The building filled with smoke -- we lost the lights," he said. "I was totally black from the soot and smoke."

The evacuation took three and a half hours. The towers were cleaned, repaired, and reopened in less than one month, however, Epstein stayed on.

By 1998 he ranked 10th among 160 brokers and was named office sales manager -- essentially the No. 2 man in the office. He was ensconced in a large corner office and helped supervise a staff of 250-300 employees as the firm experienced record years.

Even so, Epstein kept his geologic roots alive. From 1997 through this year he served as co-chairman of the geological sciences section of the New York Academy of Sciences -- just this year he hosted AAPG member Roger Sassen, of Texas A&M University, for a lecture there on offshore gas hydrates.

Epstein also recently presented a program there on "Mesozoic Manhattan," which he called "When Dinosaurs Roamed Broadway."

In many ways, he said, his Texas clientele helped fuel his advancement.