By Lana Cunningham, special contributor.
That’s the motto of the Desk and Derrick Club, an organization whose history draws much upon its Permian Basin contingent.
Fishing. Hmmm. Are there lakes with boats and fishing poles on them around here, thought the Dallas native who had never been around the oil patch until she married a landman who brought her to Midland and a job in the industry.
A co-worker at Key Energy told Sheryl Ryan she needed to join the Desk and Derrick Club to learn what “fishing” meant, and that it had nothing to do with boats and lakes.
That was 11 years ago and today she is an active member of the group that is celebrating 60 years since its inception in Midland.
Photos of those early meetings show women dressed in business suits, heels, hats, and gloves. That’s what women wore when the Desk and Derrick Club was organized in Midland.
Today, they still wear hats and gloves—hard hats, work gloves, and blue jeans, sometimes for their work and always when heading out to a rig on a field trip.
Continual education about and service to the industry is the mission of the organization that started out as a means to network and learn more about the business.
Awty was tired of writing reports about things she knew little about…
A New Orleans, La., secretary working for Humble Oil & Refining organized the first Desk and Derrick. Inez Awty (later Schaeffer) was tired of writing reports about things she knew little about and believed women working for oil companies wanted to see and know more about a derrick and other aspects of the industry.
According to a Nov. 18, 1951, article in the Midland Reporter-Telegram, “Miss Awty thought if men in the oil industry could be organized and know other men outside their own company then the women could do likewise.”
She pulled together 12 women in April 1949 to form a club. The name Desk and Derrick came from an independent consulting geologist who had asked Awty if they had a name. Clubs in other cities were formed and by the second year Desk and Derrick had grown into a national organization, as recorded in an article in the international Desk and Derrick Journal.
In 1951 clubs were being organized throughout the oil-producing parts of the country and Midland was among that group.
The six women who initiated it were May Belle Graves with Shell Oil Company; Mary Emma Elder, Fuhrman Petroleum Corporation; Fannie Bess Taylor, Crump & Corrigan; Glenyth Herring, McElroy Ranch Company; Burlyne Guyger, Humble Pipe Line Company; and Doris Hanks, The Atlantic Refining Company, noted the MRT article. They were joined by 14 others on the charter that was finalized Nov. 20, 1951.
The first business meeting packed Ranchland Hills Country Club with more than 150 women. According to one story from the national organization, “by November 1951, there were 1,500 members in the U.S. and Canada working for 350 petroleum firms.”
By 1951, there were 1,500 members in the U.S. and Canada.
As the industry has flowed up and down, so has the local organization, according to Jean Rinehart, who has been a member 35 years. At one time, chapters could be found in Midland, Odessa, Andrews, Big Spring, and Monahans. Midland, which used to list 300 members and now has fewer than 50, is the only club in the area, according to Rinehart.
“We’re not a social club,” she said. “We have women who own their own oil company, or are landmen or engineers.”
Membership, according to the application, is granted to individuals who are working in, affiliated with, or retired from energy and allied industries. Students who are majoring in one of these fields also can join.
Building friendships and camaraderie with women (and, yes, men also can join) in other companies is still only part of Desk and Derrick’s mission.
After six decades, the group continues to focus on education. In an industry where technology and methods constantly change, finding speakers on different topics has been easy. In April 1957, a guest speaker was a young Midlander named George H.W. Bush who reviewed offshore drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico. Mrs. Marshall Keathley, a geologist who also taught the subject at Odessa College, spoke to the group. Another month geologist Jerry Covington looked at petroleum possibilities of the Delaware Basin. In April 1965, C.C. Michel explained cement jobs, acidizing, and fracking. And the July program focused on “fishing,” although not the type that Ryan pictured. H.E. Lindsey, Jr., of MWL Tool & Supply Co. talked about methods used in the recovery of foreign objects (fish) from open-cased holes.
Members tour drilling rigs and pumpjacks, but also wineries, wind farms, offshore platforms…
In recent years, talks have included consumption of oil in the U.S., shale plays, oil sands, biofuels, use of gas from a landfill, horizontal drilling, and CO2 injection. Ryan noted that with the variety of topics presented at the monthly meetings, members probably know more about the energy industry and the latest technology than many other personnel.
The education component also involves hands-on field trips. Back in the group’s inception, field trips were an important part of the education process. Monthly newsletters talked of field trips to places such the G.W. O’Brien No. 584 in June 1957. During a regional convention that year in Amarillo, members toured a helium plant. In the 21st century, members are still touring drilling rigs and pumpjacks, but also wineries, wind farms, offshore platforms, and the Thums Islands off the California coast, where petroleum is loaded onto ships.
When Midland hosted the international convention in 2008, about 300 women poured into the Tall City and saw the tank farm, rigs, and pumpjacks that are not allowed in full view in their states, such as Pennsylvania, noted Ryan.
This education produces a by-product among the members. With their knowledge they often can promote the industry wherever they go to people who know little about it or have a negative view. Ryan said when she was in a plane flying over the Southwest and its many rigs and pumpjacks, people sitting next to her asked what “all that was” and she explained how the Permian Basin produces 40 percent of the petroleum that powers their cars, heats their homes, and keeps that plane in the air.
Educating young people is part of the group’s mission. For many years, Desk and Derrick has published in English and Spanish “Bit of Fun with PetroMolly and PetroMack,” an energy activity book designed for third and fourth graders. Rinehart said the books are donated to the Petroleum Museum to be given to the third and fourth graders on tours. “Some companies will buy the books and donate them to an elementary school they work with,” she added.
Desk and Derrick members provide service to the industry where needed, such as at the Permian Basin International Oil Show, Permian Basin Petroleum Association meetings, and, recently, the Petroleum Pioneers Reunion held at the Petroleum Museum.
“We’re not a social club.”
“We used the Desk and Derrick members with registration the day of the event,” said Leslie Meyer, the Museum’s director of archives. “They greeted the people and started the day off on a welcoming note. They give us peace of mind that someone is taking care of the visitors while the staff can take care of other things.”
It’s not all work for the organization. In the early years, members enjoyed an annual style show, social barbecues, and a Bosses’ Night celebration.
Style shows aren’t on the agenda much but barbecues, fund-raising golf tournaments, and a Bosses’ Night dinner still highlight the year.
“The more you get involved,” said Rinehart, “the more you learn, the more you enjoy.”
For more information on membership, contact Jean Rinehart at the Geological Research Library, 682-7773.
