Robert M. Leibrock, BSPE ‘43
Robert M. (Bob) Leibrock was born and raised in DeWitt, Arkansas, and graduated from high school in 1937. He joined a traveling dance orchestra, playing trumpet, until enrolling, at the insistence of his father, in The University of Texas at Austin. He graduated from UT Austin with a B.S. in petroleum engineering in 1943.
Leibrock worked for Stanolind Oil and Gas Co., and then served during World War II as Master Sergeant, 104th Engr. Combat Battalion, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in the Pacific Theatre. Upon returning, he resumed work at the Stanolind Research Facility in Tulsa. While working for Stanolind in Tulsa, Bob met Prudie Pinkerton, whom he married in 1946.
In Midland in 1955 Bob formed the consulting firm Leibrock, Landreth, Campbell and Callaway, specializing in petroleum reservoir engineering with partners George H. Landreth, Roy E. Campbell and F. H. Callaway. In the early 1960's the LLC&C partners branched out into oil and gas exploration, and discovered a large gas field in Alberta, Canada (Olds Field).
In 1965 the LLC&C partners and W. F. Ortloff founded Elcor Corporation, now Ortloff Engineers, Ltd., a world leader in proprietary gas processing technologies. Bob was also a founder of Tipperary Corp., originally devoted to farming and oil exploration in Australia.
In 1972 Bob and partner C. E. Marsh, II discovered and developed one of Alabama's largest gas fields, a sour, retrograde condensate reservoir, the Big Escambia Creek Field. From 1981 Bob and son, Robert C., were actively involved in oil and gas exploration and production, primarily in the Permian Basin, until his retirement in 2001.
Bob was a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers and served as Chairman of the Permian Basin Section in 1956. He was a founder of the Permian Basin Petroleum Association (PBPA) and its second president (1964-65). In 1994 he was honored by PBPA as its "Top Hand". In 2003, Bob was honored as "Top Pioneer" by the Permian Basin Petroleum Pioneers.
Supporting higher education was important to the Leibrock family. They actively supported his alma mater, The University of Texas at Austin, establishing an endowed scholarship in the Cockrell School of Engineering, and later, Bob and Prudie established the first endowed professorship in the newly-created Department of Biomedical Engineering. In 1995 he was honored as a Distinguished Graduate of the Cockrell School. Together, the Leibrocks supported other higher education causes, including establishing the Harold Glenn Brown Chair at Brite Divinity School of Texas Christian University. He was a founding member of the Midland College Board of Trustees (1969), where he served ten years and was the second president of the board. Leibrock was a trustee of the Abell-Hanger Foundation from 1979 to 1996, during which time the foundation made nearly $50 million in grants.
Bob and Prudie's first son, Robert Charles, was born in Tulsa in 1948, and son Eric William was born in Fort Worth in 1950. Bob and Prudie were blessed with three wonderful granddaughters, Susan, Jane and Christa. Robert M. Leibrock passed away on April 3, 2006, followed by Prudie in 2008.
