Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Entered the University of Texas, and School of
Geology, and Petroleum Engineering as my minor--major in petroleum
geology and minor in petroleum engineering. And with a fantastic effort
and speed I succeeded in getting my master's degree in petroleum
geology and minor in petroleum engineering in 1945, I think.
Mr. JENNER. You received your master's in 1945, did you not?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. And in petroleum geology?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes; with minor in petroleum engineering.
Mr. JENNER. Did you pursue your studies further?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. No; well, I wrote a dissertation. I pursue my
studies as the time goes by. But that was the end of my education in
American schools.
Mr. JENNER. Now, while you were at the University of Texas, did you
serve as an instructor----
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. In French.
Mr. JENNER. You had no tenure there? You were not a professor?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. No; an instructor in French, to make some
additional money.
Mr. JENNER. When did you complete your work at the University of
Texas--all of your studies?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. In the fall of 1945.
Mr. JENNER. How long were you at the University of Texas?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. I think about 2 years.
Mr. JENNER. Now, following your obtaining your master's degree at the
University of Texas, did you enter into business?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. No; I got a job waiting for me in Venezuela, the
Pantepec Oil Co. in Venezuela.
Mr. JENNER. What was the nature of that work?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. I worked as a field engineer.
Mr. JENNER. In Venezuela?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes. Very good salary; pleasant conditions. But
eventually fought with the vice president.
Mr. JENNER. What?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Eventually I got into some personal trouble with
the vice president, and this time was not kicked out but through mutual
agreement it was decided between Warren Smith, who was my president,
and a close friend, that I should resign and also----
Mr. JENNER. When did you leave that position?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Some time in 1946.
Mr. JENNER. I interrupted you. You were going to add something.
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Some time in 1946. And also I wanted to come back
to the States to renew my citizenship paper application, because I
would lose my citizenship papers by staying in Venezuela too long, you
see.
It was an American company all right, but I think it was incorporated
in Venezuela.
Mr. JENNER. Did you have to have a passport to get to that position in
Venezuela?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes; well, I think I still have my Polish
passport. But I had a reentry permit to the States.
Mr. JENNER. So you returned to the United States in 1946?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Then what did you do?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Well, I arrived back through New York, but stayed
a very short time, and went to Texas again.
Mr. JENNER. What town?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. To Houston. To look for a job. I did not want to
be in a tropical part of the United States, in a hot part. I was trying
to find a job somewhere in the northern part of the United States.
And then I heard that there is a job available as an assistant to the
chairman of the Rangely Field Engineering Committee.
Mr. JENNER. At Rangely, Colo.?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. And what was the field engineer's name? He is now dead, is
he not?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes; Joe Zorichak.
Mr. JENNER. There was an assistant. What was his name? There were two
of you assisting the chairman?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. I don't remember the other assistant's name. I
was the only one in the office. Later on--we were part of the group
of all the oil companies operating there. But we were the only ones
actually working for the committee. I don't remember.
Mr. JENNER. I will find it here in a moment.
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. You see, this committee was a consulting
organization set up by, I think, 8 or 10 oil companies operating in
Rangely Field, which is the largest field in Colorado, in the Rocky
Mountains. It still is.
Mr. JENNER. Does the name James Gibson sound familiar to you?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. No; Gibson--James Gibson; yes. But he was not
in our outfit. He was an engineer for Standard Oil of California. But
he worked very close to us. In other words, he was an employee of the
Standard Oil of California.
Mr. JENNER. Does the name J. M. Bunce sound familiar to you?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Who is he?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. He was a representative of a pumping outfit from
California who sold oil well pumps.
Mr. JENNER. Now, this Rangely Engineering Committee was formed by the
various oil companies?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. And they were operating in the Rangely, Colo., oil field,
is that correct?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. And for the purpose of compiling statistics and engineering
data for the entire field?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. No, yes; this and also to allocate production to
various wells in the field, because we didn't have any regulatory body
in Colorado at the time. We actually applied a certain formula to each
well to see how much each well would be allowed to produce. This was
our main job, you know.
Then, of course, our job was to coordinate the technical advances in
that field and promote the new methods of drilling producing, to cut
down expenses in the field. Among other things, we introduced diamond
drilling there, drilling with diamond bits, which eventually became
very, very successful.
Mr. JENNER. Now, this was what--1947?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. 1946, 1947. I stayed there, I think, about 3-1/2
years, something like that. 3 years, maybe.
Mr. JENNER. Now, at this time you met and married your second wife, did
you not?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Phyllis Washington?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Now, tell us about that a little bit.
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. I went on a vacation to New York, met a very
pretty girl, and she was willing to follow me in the wilderness
of Colorado, which she did. She was young and a little bit wild.
But very, very attractive and adventurous. And she came with me to
Colorado--without being married.
Her father was with the State Department, Walter Washington.
But I didn't know him.
Mr. JENNER. She was an adopted child?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Her name originally was Wasserman?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes; something like that. And she was a beautiful
girl who decided to come to Colorado with me. She stayed with me, we
fell in love. She created a terrible confusion in Colorado. Imagine
an international beauty with bikinis. I don't know if it is for the
record. With bikinis, walking around the oil fields. But she was a
wonderful girl, wonderful girl. She gave up the possibility of going to
Spain, where her father was appointed charge d' affaires at the time.
She decided she would rather stay with me in Colorado in the wilderness.
And I will tell you, that was a terrible place. That was the last
boomtown in America. Rangely, the last boomtown in the United States.
We lived in shacks, we lived in 40-degree below zero temperature, mud.
It is the roughest place you ever saw in your life.
Mr. JENNER. You eventually tired of Rangely, Colo., and moved over to
Aspen, did you not?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. No; I didn't move to Aspen. I just had a little
cabin in Aspen. I had a cabin in Aspen, and would go there on weekends.
But then I became chairman.
Joe Zorichak resigned his position and moved to Dallas as assistant
president of the American Petroleum Institute, assistant to the
president of the API. And I was appointed to replace him.
Mr. JENNER. Was it about this time that you took residence in Aspen?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Well, no; about that time. I would say--I didn't
take residence. I just had a cabin in Aspen.
But I commuted between Rangely and Aspen.
Mr. JENNER. That is quite a commutation. It is 165 miles, isn't it?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Nothing for the oil field.
Mr. JENNER. But it takes a long time to get 165 miles.
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. 3 hours. But naturally I would go there on the
weekend and come back. Probably they accuse me of spending all my
time in Aspen. But, anyway, what finally happened is, good or bad, we
decided to sever connections with the Rangely Engineering Committee.
They decided to stop completely the Rangely Engineering Committee.
Mr. JENNER. You had some difficulties with them before they decided to
break it up, didn't you?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. I don't remember too much of a difficulty.
Mr. JENNER. Was there something about your spending too much time over
at Aspen, and not being----
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Well, they never told me that. But possibly.
Mr. JENNER. The severance of your relationship was mutual?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes, I think so. I don't think--you may call it
I was fired, but I don't think so. As far as I remember, we just got
together with the manager of Texaco in Denver and he told me, "George,
we are just going to stop the operation at Rangely Field of the
Engineering Committee."