Houston Geological Society 1928-1973 HGS 50th Anniversary

I had the honor of being HGS president for the 50th lanniversary. The society was vigorous and serving the members well. However, the petroleum industry was in the doldrums, with no indication whatsoever of the great boom which was to come some five years later. As a result, HGS membership was virtually stagnant; totals plotted like a dead man's curve, with little movement from one year to the next. To celebrate our 50th anniversary, we decided to get the society growing again by conducting a membership campaign to reach an all-time high of 2,000 members, a couple of hundred more than we had ever had before. A very determined enrollment program paid off, and by the end of the term we were about ten members over our goal. HGS has con- tinued this upward trend over the years, with few set-backs, and has continued its preeminent position as the largest, local geological society in the world.
To culminate our 50th anniversary, we decided make a special evening out of our annual June guest night meeting. Plans were to have a separate room for a cocktail reception hour preceding the normal part of the meeting. We were to have an open-bar cocktail hour with hors d'oeuvres instead of the regular, run-of-the-mill, no-host cocktail hour that normally precedes meetings. Careful plans were made, and arrangements were formalized with the Royal Coach Inn (since demolished) on U.S. 59, near the Sharpstown Shopping Center, to cater the reception and the banquet.
HGS was supposed to have a separate room for the reception and hors d'oeuvres, with the main room reserved for the dinner meeting. We were all looking forward to a memorable and pleasant evening, with a nice reception, a good dinner, and the presentation. However, our great plans turned out to be much different than the event.
Houston Flooded!In the late afternoon of the day of the meeting, Houston was drowned by a thirteen inch rain which brought the whole city to a flooded stand-still. The heaviest rain had ceased by the time of the meeting, but, nevertheless, it took considerable driving skill, and a lot of luck, to reach the hotel at all. Many of the streets were flooded and stranded vehicles were everywhere. Getting to the hotel gave the successful ones a sense of high accomplishment.
On showing up at the hotel, we found that the room we were supposed to have for the reception was filled with rolled up carpet. The area the hotel set up for the reception consisted of a couple of tables against the wall and about six feet of space in front of them for people to stand between the hors d'oeuvres tables and the dinner tables. The hotel made no attempt to meet our orders.
There wasn't much we could do at this late time, so I told the waiters to move the dinner tables closer together and closer to the head table to give us more room. They refused and, when I told them I would do it myself, tried to intervene. When threatened with broken heads, the waiters backed off and said they were calling the manager. I encouraged them to do just that, because I really wanted to have it out with the big boss who had caused all this trouble. He never showed. A number of us moved the tables to make more room for the reception and, in the end, it turned out all right, even though things were a little cozy.
Treasurer Arrives After Wading Through WaterOur treasurer, Anthony Reso, did not show up at the check-in desk as early as usual, causing some confusion with checking in. The general stress of the evening, with the flood and the arrangement foul-up, made me a little impatient with "Tony." My annoyance turned to admiration when he showed up moments later. He baby-stepped into the room with his pants rolled up over his knees, holding his shoes and socks in his hands. He only could make it to within a couple of blocks of the hotel; the rest of the way he waded barefoot. From then on check-in went well. A few people called the hotel to say they were blocked by flooded streets and couldn't make it. However, we made our reservation number with about two hundred attendees. To further celebrate the anniversary Amoco drafted a very nice three feet square poster of the HGS logo to go in front of the podium. With the exception of about a dozen years when it was lost, I have archived the logo, and it is still proudly displayed on my office wall. If I can be sure that it will be saved, I will gladly turn it over to official HGS custody.
The meal was terrible with some sort of ersatz meat loaf, instead of the roast beef we had ordered. But, in spite of all the messed up arrangements, the evening went very nicely. All the adversity and the open bar had loosened everyone up, and it had resulted in a light-hearted, relaxed, enjoyable time. The water had subsided by the time we finished, so getting home was no problem.
The hotel called me about a week later to solicit more business, a situation that gave are a great deal of perverse pleasure. We never went back.
Although the anniversary celebration was not as good as it could have been, it did represent a turning point. The Houston Geological Society has been growing and getting stronger and more influential ever since.