Petroleum Engineering 1951
Walter Bork is a 1951 OU petroleum engineering graduate. His education prepared him for an adventurous career that began in West Texas with Gulf Oil and culminated in New York City where he served the Mobil Corporation until his retirement in 1991.
Mr. Bork served two years in the United States Army. He trained recruits at Fort Belvoir, Virginia and served as company commander in Korea with a division of the Engineer Pipeline Company.
Following his distinctive service in the military, Mr. Bork started his career with Mobil at a refinery in Buffalo, New York. After five years, he was transferred to Mobil’s headquarters in New York City where he would spend the majority of his career in the manufacturing and supply side of the company.
His work ethic and dedication to Mobil did not go unnoticed. Mr. Bork would rise in rank, serving as general manager of corporate supply and distribution, responsible for the oversight of crude and product supply to Mobil affiliates worldwide. With the implementation of nationalizing many crude producing areas, Mr. Bork would provide leadership in fairly distributing the limited crude supply. He was elected to the Mobil Corporate Board, where he served as vice president.
Mr. Bork has shared his experience and expertise with the College of Engineering for 21 years, serving as a member of the Board of Visitors.
MS Petroleum Engineering 1952
Robert R. McCall was born in Norman, Oklahoma in 1926. The Great Depression of the 30’s caused great hardship for the family. As a teenager, Bob made the decision to move to Oklahoma City to go to High School, so that he could work the night shift at Tinker Air Force Base. These were the War Years.
Following graduation from Central High, Bob enlisted in the Navy. He spent several months training to be an electronic technician and going to submarine school. He then volunteered for submarine duty. Bob was sent to the Navy base at Midway Island in the Pacific. While there, he was assigned to the USS Hawkbill. The war was nearing the end and Bob was subsequently discharged from the Navy. The year was 1946.
After his discharge, Bob moved to Denver, worked for a large dry cleaning plant for a few months and then opened a small dry cleaning business of his own. Two years later, Bob returned to Norman where his father strongly urged him to take advantage of the GI Bill and enroll at OU.
Bob majored in petroleum engineering and earned a BS degree in 1951 and an MS degree in 1952. He then accepted a job with Texaco and from 1952-1960 was given a series of field assignments in Oklahoma, Kansas, Illinois and Texas. He moved to Midland, TX as District Petroleum Engineer for the Midland, TX division. In 1968, Bob was promoted to Chief Petroleum Engineer for Texaco in Houston, TX.
In 1969, Bob was transferred to Texaco’s New York headquarters as a member of the company’s Strategic Planning Group. At this time, Libya was demanding excessive payments for their crude oil. Bob was part of a negotiating team sent to Libya to try to bring about an agreeable settlement. After weeks of work, their efforts were unsuccessful and the oil companies were nationalized.
Following the Libyan event, Bob remained in the New York office and became Assistant General Manager, then General Manager of Texaco’s Eastern Hemisphere Producing Department. In 1977, he was named a Texaco Vice President. During his ten years in New York, he traveled extensively to such countries as Indonesia, China, Norway, the U.K., Libya and Ethiopia to coordinate Texaco’s exploration and producing activities and to meet with government officials.
In 1980, Bob became Senior V.P. in charge of Exploration and Production throughout the U.S. and in 1983, he was named Executive Vice President of Texaco USA. He retired from Texaco in 1987.
