among those many outstanding geology faculty members tom said were professor travis j parker and department head shirley a lynch who influenced toms enthusiasm for petroleum geology as a profession but it was professor fred smith his graduate supervisor whom he remembers most fondly tom spent many nights sleeping on the smiths porch after long hot summer days in the field followed by strict grammar corrections to his thesis by freds wife odette who was an incredible english teacher after earning his masters degree tom spent two years conducting national security and counterintelligence operations in the us air force in 1956 he went to work as an exploration geologist for conoco but left that job two years later and joined a new company: halbouty alaska oil company in anchorage alaska it was during his nine years working for the halbouty alaska oil co that tom became friends with wally hickela larger-than-life figure who would rise from a kansas tenant farm to become a self-made millionaire governor of alaska and us secretary of the interior tom and hickels friendship was based in great part on their common vision for alaskan statehood and growth and for development of its resources by and for the alaskan people hickel appointed tom as the states commissioner of natural resources in 1967 two years later north americas largest oil field was discovered on state-owned lands tom planned and presided over the largest oil and gas lease sale (to that point in time) of prudhoe bay leases which netted the state of alaska nearly $1 billion and brought the state out of near bankruptcy this laid the groundwork for the permanent fund that pays all alaskan residents a handsome cash dividend annually something unique to alaska after three years as commissioner and a regime change tom decided to set out on his own for 27 years he shared his exploration conservation and development know-how as a geological consultant primarily helping native alaskan corporations manage natural resource development matters on tribal lands a perfect partnership by the time tom and cyd met in houston he was a widower with four grown children they married in 1992 and she and her two children followed him to his home in seattle tom was without an administrative assistant at that time and cyd stepped in to fill the role for what was supposedly a two-week timeframe while tom found another assistant nothing happened and cyd has been his partner in life and business ever since almost three decades later the couple still marvels at the role fate played in their partnership cyd mastered accounting skills while working in houstons galleria complex real estate office later she served as an administrative assistant for two pricewaterhousecoopers international tax partners who specialized in oil and gas taxation she also handled the personal oil and gas investments of one of those partners everything i did was beneficial down the road she said my prior careers prepared me to work with tom another kind of legacy when halbouty passed away in 2004 he left a legacy both as a petroleum geologist and as a texas a&m benefactor in terms of his own legacy tom continues to provide gifts to the foundation he and cyd have endowed two petroleum geosciences scholarships and one graduate student fellowship while proceeds from the graduate fellowship are already helping texas a&m students afford their education the kellys recently decided to enhance this endowment through a planned gift by remembering the foundation in their will the couple will double the size of this endowment and by giving in the form of a charitable bequest they retain full use of their assets during their lifetime while supporting texas a&m students with a portion of those assets after theyre gone dr julie newman professor and department head for the department of geology and geophysics explained the long-term impact of the kellys gift "graduate fellowships invest in our future because graduate education in geology is fundamental to the discovery of new knowledge about the earth and its resources the graduate experience in the department of geology and geophysics at texas a&m prepares students to lead our field contributions like this change lives and build careers this generous gift will have a lasting impact for years to come" by pledging a planned gift that will enhance their already-established graduate student endowment the kellys feel they will both impact the lives of more students and in doing so bolster the future of the petroleum geology field im still heavily partial to geosciences and i think theres a lot of life left in the fossil fuel energy business tom explained hydrocarbon resources are used for so many things besides fuel that there simply wont be a time when we wont need them im all for renewable resources but i dont believe the fossil fuel industry is anywhere close to dead by kara bounds socol originally published by the texas a&m foundation