Richard Arden Morse

June 17, 2012 — cherokee strip, drilling rig

Richard Arden Morse, my father, was born in Independance, Kansas in 1920. His father, Ernie Morse was a jar head, a person who drilled oil wells before the advent of the rotary bit.  They were a natural part of the culture in the Cherokee Strip.  Ernie grew up on the Cherokee Nation and with his grandparents who farmed outside Coffeyville, KS.  When my dad was a kid this part of the world contained the most concentrated  wealth in the world.  Oil was to be found close to the surface.  My father learned fracking from Ernie, who had an 8th grade education. He went to Oklahoma University, Penn State, and later Texas A&M, where he pioneered numerical modeling of oil fields.

Ernie Morse in Coffeeville

Richard at OU

Richard and Ruby marry Nov 1942

Richard Arden married Ruby Lea Taylor in Houston on Nov 13, 1942.  He was driving a drilling rig truck for Halliburton at the time.  They met at a boarding house where they both lived. They traveled the world together until his death in 2004.  They went everywhere and did everything, well ahead of their time.

My father taught me to be scientific, to dance, sing, play musical instruments, and be a true sophisticate. He taught at Texas A&M at the end of his career, enjoying the international students who came to study in the petroleum graduate school. They had difficult projects during the semester, but he was famous for his “final exams” which were big parties at my parents’  house for all the students.