Harrison C. “Harry” Jamison, an internationally famed petroleum geologist, AAPG GeoLegend and a longtime supporter and leader of the AAPG Foundation, died March 4 at his home in Tucson, Ariz. He was 100.
Jamison gained international recognition and fame when, in 1968, he led the Atlantic Richfield team of explorationists that discovered Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay Field, the largest conventional oil and gas field in North America.
He and his team also developed much of the technology used on the North Slope.
A native of St. Louis, Jamison graduated from UCLA in 1949 and joined Richfield Oil Corp. the following year, eventually working in a variety of locations in the western United States and in 1960 being named exploration supervisor for Alaska and Pacific Northwest.
In 1966 he was named district manager for the newly merged Atlantic Refining and Richfield companies in Anchorage, Alaska, and became the leader of the team that explored the North Slope and discovered the Prudhoe Bay Field two years later.
He also was instrumental in several other discoveries both on and offshore Alaska’s Cook Inlet, and subsequently held several leadership positions for his company, including vice president and chief geologist for ARCO’s North American Producing Division; district manager for the Rocky Mountain District; and manager of exploration for the western United States.
In 1981 he formed and was named president of ARCO Exploration Co., and senior vice president of Atlantic Richfield Co. He retired from ARCO in 1985 and became a consultant, working in Alaska, Jampan, China, South Korea, Canada, Australia, Denmark and throughout the United States.
Jamison was a 75-year emeritus member of AAPG, a longtime member of the Division of Professional Affairs and was active on a number of AAPG committees, including the Corporate Advisory and Governmental Communications groups.
He was a 41-year member of the AAPG Foundation Trustee Associates, serving as its chairman in 1991. He also served terms as the TA vice chair and secretary/treasurer. He was a Foundation Member of the Corporation from 1996-2005.
He met his wife-to-be, Joy, after returning home from combat duty with the U.S. Navy (Pacific theater) during World War II, and they were married in 1946. In addition to being active with the Foundation and the TAs, they started the Foundation’s Harry and Joy Jamison Named Grant.
Joy died in 2009.
A four-part interview with Jamison, focusing on details of his historic career involving Prudhoe Bay and Alaska’s North Slope, can be found on AAPG’s GeoLegends website, at: aapg.to/harryjamison.