Douglas G. Patchen
- West
Virginia Geological Survey, Morgantown, W.Va.
- Born 1942, Wolcott,
N.Y.
Academic Degrees:
- 1964 — Harpur
College, B.S., geology
- 1967 — SUNY-Binghamton,
M.A., geology
- 1971 — Syracuse
University, Ph.D., geology
Experience:
-
1966-present — West Virginia Geological Survey
-
1966-68 — Sedimentary Petrographer
-
1969-70 — Cooperating Geologist
-
1971-95 — Head, Oil & Gas Section
-
1978-86 — Chief, Fossil Fuels Division
-
1989 — Chief Geologist
-
1990 — National Research Center for Coal and Energy,
West Virginia University
-
1990 — Director, Resource Extraction Division
-
1990 — Director, Appalachian Oil & Natural Gas Research
Consortium
-
1994 — Director, Petroleum Technology Transfer Council,
Appalachian Region
AAPG Activities:
-
Member since 1985; member EMD
-
1996-2001 — Advisory Council (Recording Secretary 1998-2001)
-
1984-2004 — Preservation of Samples and Cores Committee
(Chairman 1995-99)
-
1983-1989 - Stratigraphic Correlations Committee
-
2000-02 — EMD Councilor, Eastern Section
-
2000-2003 - House of Delegates
-
1999-2002 - Visiting Geologist Program
-
1978-1983 — Coordinator, Appalachian Basin, COSUNA Project
-
1971-1990 — Development Paper author (Coordinator, Mid-eastern
states 1978-1990)
Affiliated
and Associated Societies and Sections:
-
Eastern Section — Treasurer 1992-1993
- Secretary 1993-1994
- Vice President 1994-1995
- President
1995-1996
- Annual Meeting General Chairman 1996, 2003
- Chairman,
Committee on Technical Meetings 1998-1999
- Commissioner
of Elections 1997
- Chairman, Committee on Society Boundaries
1999-2000
Other Professional
Affiliations:
-
Potential Gas Committee 1995-2002.
-
IOGCC Enhanced Oil Recovery Committee 1977-88
-
West Virginia University Chapter of The Society of Sigma
Xi officer 1985-1990
-
Federal Power Commission Task Force, Methane in Coal 1975-1976
-
Geological Society of America Southeastern Section Workshop
Chairman 1998
Honors and
Awards:
-
AAPG Eastern Section Levorsen Award 1974
-
West Virginia Academy of Science Best Paper Award 1975
-
AAPG Eastern Section Public Service Award 1986
-
State of West Virginia Certificate of Recognition 1991
-
AAPG Certificate of Merit 1996, 1999
-
AAPG Eastern Section Distinguished Service Award 1997
-
AAPG Distinguished Service Award 1999
-
AAPG Eastern Section Honorary Membership 1999
Community and
Civic Affairs:
-
Monongalia Youth Soccer Association Board of Directors
— President, Vice President and Treasurer
-
Morgantown Baseball Association Board of Directors
-
Boy Scout Council
Publications:
-
More than 50 journal articles and special
publications
- More than 40 abstracts of presented papers
and posters
- Numerous contract reports and summaries of
oil and gas activity
Why
I Accepted the Invitation To Be a Candidate for AAPG Office
Obviously, it is
a great honor to be nominated to be a candidate for an AAPG
office, and actually, it is a humbling experience as well.
Having served five years on the Advisory Council, I can attest
to the depth of the pool of highly qualified candidates that
was considered each year for the various offices. With this
in mind, it was one thing to sign the form last fall agreeing
to be considered as a candidate; it was quite another when
I received the phone call from President Gries this spring
asking me to confirm that I was still willing to do so.
Thinking back
over the years, AAPG has probably been a bigger part of my
professional life than I realized for a long time. Coming
out of a northeastern college, I was much more aware of GSA
than I was AAPG until I began working at the West Virginia
Geological Survey and met Dudley Cardwell, a long time AAPG
member and one of the finest gentlemen I have ever had the
good fortune to know. Through Dudley, I got involved in the
Committee on Statistics of Drilling and the AAPG Development
Papers, an involvement that lasted more than 20 years.
About that same
time I was asked to serve as the Appalachian Basin coordinator
for the COSUNA Project, or Correlation of Stratigraphic Units
of North America, and that led to my being asked to serve
on the Stratigraphic Correlations Committee. However, even
when I began serving on this committee in the early 1980s,
I still was not an AAPG member.
Eventually I realized
how much I really enjoyed working with the highly competent
and fully committed people on the CSD and COSUNA projects,
and that each year I had been presenting papers at the Eastern
Section meeting and attending the national convention, so
I gave in to the annual plea of Fred Dix to become a member
myself.
Why did I wait
so long? Perhaps as a goal-oriented and slightly cautious
person, I thought I was too busy doing other things to commit
to AAPG. I don't mind planning, and do a lot of it, but to
me planning means little or nothing unless those plans are
implemented, and this is what I really enjoy doing. I use
this same approach when considering whether or not to join
a professional organization. Unless I have the time to get
really involved, and feel that I can make a significant contribution
and make things happen, I do not join an organization just
for the sake of joining.
I commonly apply
this philosophy during discussions with those who have dropped
out of AAPG, and complained that they did not "get enough
out of it." My response is, "What did you put into it?" The
more you put into an organization like AAPG, the more you
will get out of it. It really is as simple as that, at least
for me.
When I served
on the Advisory Council, I noticed that on many occasions
AC members who also were in the House of Delegates or on the
Executive Committee saw the same issue a little differently,
while those who were in neither saw it still differently from
their AC-only perspective. That intrigued me, because I always
like to understand all sides of an issue before I reach a
decision. So, having served on the Advisory Council and in
the House of Delegates, I look forward to the opportunity
to see AAPG from the perspective of the Executive Committee.
AAPG is a business,
and not a small business. As such, some decisions made by
the Executive Committee and executive director must be made
with the health and future growth of the business foremost
in their minds. At the same time, however, AAPG is composed
of individuals, and these individuals have personal needs
that AAPG can and should address. I look forward to the opportunity
to be responsive to the needs of the membership and to be
part of an Executive Committee that promotes a strong corporate
entity while advancing the well-being of its members as our
constitution states.
The need for education,
training and re-training never ends, due to the cyclic nature
of the industry and the constant development of new technology.
I have been around long enough to observe the up and down
nature of the oil and gas industry, seemingly with a cycle
in every decade since the 1960s. And I have noticed how quickly
and efficiently AAPG has responded to the needs of their members
during and after each decline. In the 1970s, many petroleum
geologists lost their jobs and found new employment in the
coal industry. AAPG responded with the Energy Minerals Division
and programs to retrain these members. In the 1980s, after
another downturn, many members began a new career in the environmental
arena. Again, AAPG responded with the Division of Environmental
Geosciences, more training and new publications.
This is a good
track record, but the obligation to respond to member needs
never ends. The industry continues to change each year, with
new technology and an increasingly more global perspective.
As we reach out to new members and affiliated societies in
other parts of the world, we need to be proactive to fully
invest them in our organization. And, we need to do this not
only for the working petroleum professional, but for the petroleum
students as well, those who are the future of the global industry
and AAPG.
New technology
to transfer, students to teach, interdisciplinary teamwork
to promote, an environment to protect: these are among the
key elements in the future of our organization, and all must
be addressed by future executive committees of AAPG. It is
an exciting prospect, and I hope not only to stick around
for a few more years to be part of it, but to have the opportunity
to be an active, productive member of one of these Executive
Committees as well.