Eugene F. "Bud" Reid, a past AAPG president and treasurer of the AAPG Foundation, died suddenly Oct. 2 at his home in Carpenteria, Calif. He was 79.
A native of Long Beach, Calif., he served in the U.S. Navy in the Philippines from 1944-46. Returning home, he worked summers for a drilling company founded by his father while attending Stanford University, where he received bachelor's and master's degrees.
He began working with an independent, then worked for Shell and resigned to become vice president of his father's Gene Reid Drilling Co. in 1956.
When the company merged with Occidental Petroleum in 1959, Reid became exploration manager for Oxy, exploring the Sacramento Valley and the urban area of the Los Angeles Basin, and advanced to executive vice president in charge of worldwide oil exploration and production as Oxy successfully explored Libya.
In 1971 he became an independent in Bakersfield, Calif., and formed Sunburst Exploration in Bakersfield and Santa Barbara, and later formed Vortex Petroleum.
Reid joined AAPG in 1952 and was awarded the Public Needs Award in 1986 and Honorary Membership in 1991. He was general chairman of the 1987 AAPG Annual Meeting in Los Angeles.
He served as AAPG vice president in 1980-81 and AAPG president from 1994-95.
Two AAPG Foundation funds were established by and in Reid's honor in 2004:
- The E.F. Reid Scouting Fund supports programs that teach geology to young people in the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and other youth organizations as determined by the Trustees of the Foundation.
The fund was named in recognition of Reid's long-time dedication to and financial support of the Boy Scouts, including serving as president of the American Boy Scouts and as a member of its executive Board.
- The E.F. Reid Dibblee Fund supports the work of the Thomas W. Dibblee Jr. Center for Geology, which was created through the merger of the Thomas W. Dibblee Jr. Geological Foundation and the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.
Robert E. Megill, a geologist who became internationally known for his expertise in exploration economics, died Sept. 28 in Houston after a long illness. He was 82.
Megill graduated from the University of Tulsa with a degree in engineering geology and went to work with Carter Oil Company (nee Humble, later Exxon) estimating reserves. His focus on the economics grew and his planning group at Humble designed a ground-breaking series of seminars titled "Dealing in Dollars" to introduce exploration economics and risk to the company.
In 1970, he wrote An Introduction to Exploration Economics and in 1977 wrote An Introduction to Risk Analysis, which became the authoritative standards in the field. He also was the author of How to be a Productive Employee and a number of articles in industry publications, including the AAPG BULLETIN.
Upon his retirement from Exxon in 1983 he was the inaugural columnist for the monthly "Business Side of Geology" column in the EXPLORER and continued until 1993. He also joined AAPG President Pete Rose and Ed Capen to create and teach the "Evaluating and Managing Petroleum Risk" continuing education course for AAPG.
He was a founding and charter trustee associate of the AAPG Foundation and also served on the Publications Committee; was a Visiting Geologist; an associate editor for the BULLETIN; and was a delegate to the AAPG House.
Megill received AAPG Honorary Membership in 1993 and the AAPG Special Award in 1997.