Awards & Scholarships

The ninth recipient of this medal is a man whose perception of the utility of geology and geophysics in oil finding, backed by his real ability as an executive and an administrator, made him a chief instrument in building the reserves of this and other countries to their present levels. Wallace Everette Pratt, in the words of one associate, "more than any other man, perhaps, he has brought to the general public an awareness and appreciation of the importance of the science of geology to the arts of prospecting for and producing oil."

Mr. Pratt was born in 1885 in Phillipsburg, Kansas. He holds AB, BS, AM, and EM Degrees from the University of Kansas; the latter degree being obtained after five years in the Division of Mines, Bureau of Science, Philippine Islands. His attachment to the petroleum industry dates from 1916 and his initial experience with The Texas .Company as a division geologist. In 1918 after a year of private royalty buying, he joined the infant Humble Oil & Refining Company as its chief and only geologist. He became a director of the company in 1924 and a vice president in 1930. In 1937 he left Humble to become a director and member of the Executive Committee of The Standard Oil Company (New Jersey). In 1942 he was appointed vice president of this company and served as such until his recent retirement.