Robert (Bob) Goodall Behrman, Jr., was born in La Porte, Texas, February 4, 1914, and died peacefully on Thursday, December 4, 2015, after a brief illness.
Robert Behrman had been a commercial artist in high-school and went to Rice University to study architecture on a band scholarship. A career in architecture during the Great Depression was not meant to be, and so he left Rice to work for Gulf Oil Co. as a “Hall Boy” delivering mail, samples, maps, logs, and so on. He quickly made it out of the "hallway" and became active washing samples and drafting maps, and so joined the emerging field of petroleum geology.
It was exciting: Gulf was not just a company with striking orange colors – a brand now re-appearing in gas stations and convenience stores all across the nation. But, Gulf also sponsored air-racing. As a young field geologist, Bob joined with his friends to buy a tiny Piper Cub (Yellow Peril) and they learned to fly.
At one critical juncture, Gulf was running out of time to drill a prospect they had sub-leased from Humble Oil. Bob flew to Pittsburgh, where the deal had been made with Standard Oil of New Jersey, and came back with boxes of materials to be analyzed. They turned that data into a development plan for Gulf’s portion of the newly discovered field.
Many geologists and engineers in Houston had learned to fly in and out of the “oil patch”, and quite a few of them ended up in the Navy for the duration of World War II. Robert became a naval aviator, a Navy flight instructor, and later used his artist-turned-geologist skill set as an officer in the Navy’s first aerial photo-intelligence squadron in Okinawa.
After the war, Bob spent more time in the field with Gulf Oil Co: Texas, Louisiana, swamps and shallow-water fields offshore. But, he moved back to Houston and became an independent geologist when his wife Genevieve insisted life in the swamp wasn’t for her.
Bob and a few colleagues with shared interests in flying and in oilfields formed Gulf Coast Leaseholds. The independent exploration and production firm had only one plane: a Beechcraft Bonanza, a much smaller plane that those used by the big firms. But that plane took Robert far afield. His company acquired the leases over an ancient oil province in Ecuador, where shallow oil had been leaking into the Pacific since pre-Columbian times. This field had been a British “naval stores” concession before the war, but was acquired by some Houston investors for redevelopment using modern technology.
The oil business was compelling for a young and, eventually, nearly 102-year-old man. It was always art and science for Robert. His hand became palsied but his mind never lost the youthful wonder of the universe and the earth he beheld.
Robert was an Emeritus member of the Houston Geological Society and a member of the Water Color Art Society of Houston. At the time of his death, he was the oldest living member of South Main Baptist Church in Houston, which he and Genevieve had joined upon his return to Houston after the war.
Bob's wife Genevieve was an active member of the Houston Geological Auxiliary. She served as the group's President during the 1960's. She passed away on November 30, 2006.
Robert and Genevieve are survived by their children in Houston, John Robert Behrman, Susan Riley and husband Brian, Charles Thomas Behrman and wife Kathy, a foster son in Los Angeles, California, Joe Stewart; seven grandchildren and four great grandchildren.