SPE News
This section lists with regret SPE members who recently passed away.
Each year during its Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition (ATCE), SPE honors members whose outstanding contributions to the Society and the petroleum industry merit special distinction. Recipients will be recognized at the Annual Awards Banquet on 22 October.
After years of market shocks, technological breakthroughs, and rising uncertainty, ATCE 2026 will provide new insights on how industry leaders and technical experts are preparing for the next era of the upstream business.
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Carl Wiseheart Sherman, who held prominent positions in engineering, academia, and government, and was a former chair of the SPE Illinois Basin Section, died 5 August 2013. He was 90. -
John M. Campbell Sr., an internationally renowned expert in the petroleum industry who served as chairman of the University of Oklahoma’s School of Petroleum Engineering, died 24 August 2013, at his home in Norman, Oklahoma, after a brief illness. He was 91.
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SPE welcomes 83 members into the Legion of Honor, which celebrates 50 years of -consecutive membership in the Society. Each honoree becomes dues exempt and receives a certificate marking the milestone. The honorees are listed below under their respective sections.
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Since its inception 55 years ago, SPE has remained constant in its mission to collect, disseminate, and exchange technical knowledge and to provide opportunities for professionals to enhance their technical and professional competence.
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GEORGE P. MITCHELL, SPE, a pioneer in developing methods to produce shale gas economically, died 26 July in Galveston, Texas. He was 94.
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Many may not know that SPE has a parent organization: the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers (AIME).
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H. Arthur Nedom, SPE, died 11 March 2013 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA. He was born 19 August 1925. Nedom served in the US Army Infantry in Belgium and Germany during World War II, and was awarded the Bronze Star for heroic conduct in battle. He is a distinguished alumnus of the University of Tulsa, where he earned his BS and MS degrees in petroleum engineering. Following g…
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Murray Free Hawkins Jr., SPE, died 7 March 2013. He was 95. Hawkins is survived by his wife of 70 years—Julia Welles Hawkins—and his four children. He received a BS degree in chemistry and an MS degree in physics, both from Louisiana State University (LSU). He worked for the Carter Oil Company research laboratories before serving in the South Pacific as an officer in …
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Li Yugeng, SPE, died 7 November 2012 in Beijing, China. He was 83. He was the founder of SPE’s Beijing Section, established in October 1991, and was the section chairman from 1991 to 1995. Under his leadership, other sections were gradually established in China. Li was president of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) subsidiary, Daqing Oilfield, the largest oi…
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H.J. “Hank” Gruy, SPE, a former SPE president whose company was a pioneer in transitioning engineering calculations from mechanical calculators to computers, died 19 December 2012. He was 97.
