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Distinguished Alumni Honorees
2013
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.
A second-generation UT PGE graduate, Dr. Karen D. Hagedorn earned a bachelor's degree in petroleum engineering from UT PGE in 1986. She earned the degree in three years with highest honors, and her subsequent educational and career paths have remained equally impressive.
From an early age, Jeff Hildebrand had a vision and a passion to run and own his own oil and gas company. As a young boy growing up in Houston Jeff learned firsthand what it takes to succeed from his parents. His father was a veterinarian who built a multi-practice enterprise with the help of his adventurous mother who tragically lost her life while piloting her own airplane when Jeff was 15 years old. This was an unfortunate and unsettling event for Jeff, but eventually gave him the perseverance to flourish. The strong work ethic and entrepreneurial spirit instilled in him by his parents combined with the knowledge and skills gained from an education at The University of Texas at Austin laid the foundation for his accomplishments.
Harry A. Trueblood, Jr. was born in Wichita Falls August 28, 1925 to Harry and Marguerite Barnhart Trueblood, and raised in Childress. A born entrepreneur, he had his first job at 11, participated in his first "founding" at age 12 when he helped launch Boy Scout Troop 63 and rose to the rank of Eagle Scout by June, 1940 while helping found an Explorer Scout troop. Harry graduated from high school in 1942 and entered Texas A & M College in August before his 17th birthday. He transferred to UT Austin after one semester when it became evident that serving in the ROTC wouldn't assure he could graduate with his BSPE degree before mandatory wartime army service. Harry attended UT from January, 1943 until he graduated in August, 1948 except for period 1944-46 of naval service in the Pacific aboard a minesweeper. While on campus, he belonged to Kappa Alpha (VP) and was elected a Texas Cowboy (Camp Cook).
Fred Stephens has been a part of the "oil patch" since his college days at UT PGE in the late 1940's working summers as a roughneck in Wink and roustabout in Ozona. In 1949, after graduating from UT Austin with a Bachelor of Science in Petroleum Engineering, Fred's career began when he accepted an engineering job in Wichita Falls with Cable Engineering, a company owned by Joe Cable, the father of one of Fred's classmates. Fred left the roughneck job to go to work for Cable Engineering and never looked back. His new wife, Jane, made the move with him to Wichita Falls.
After serving four years as a naval aviation cadet, Charles Simmons went on to receive a petroleum engineering degree from UT Austin in 1948.
2012
Born in Greenville, South Carolina, “Steve” Skinner’s family moved to Texas when he was three years old. Although his father’s career as a civil engineer at the South Texas Project Electric Generating Station exposed him to engineering from an early age, it was a conversation with former UT PGE professor Dr. William Rossen about the challenges to finding hydrocarbons that inspired Skinner to enroll at UT PGE. He received his BSPE from The UT Austin in 2001. During his time at UT PGE, he was a President of the Society of Petroleum Engineers student chapter, as well as the SPE representative to the Student Engineering Council.
“Teaching has been my main objective most of my life,” said Dr. Kermit Brown during his recognition as a Legend of Production and Operations in the SPE Journal of Petroleum Technology in 2009. “It is something that I have enjoyed more than anything else I have done.”
James Carl Anderson personifies the entrepreneurial spirit. It’s a spirit that has carried him from the plains of his native Nebraska to the pinnacles of success in the international oil and natural gas industry.
Joseph Charles Walter, Jr., or Joe as he was widely known, was a Houston native, the son of Gladys Hoskins and Joseph Charles Walter, Sr., an oil and gas landman. Born in 1927, he completed Lamar High School and graduated from UT Austin with his BSPE in 1949, and an MA in Geology in 1951.