Robert Wyckoff
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| Membership | Life Member |
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Bob Wyckoff, an Emeritus Member of SEG and Honorary Member of the Geophysical Society of Tulsa, currently serves on the Real Estate Board and Historical Preservation Committee. His past contributions to the Society are numerous and varied. Most recently he has led SEG’s historical preservation efforts. He helped plan/build/operate SEG’s Geoscience Center; he served as Secretary/ Treasurer of the Executive Committee; he chaired the Finance, Membership, and Scholarship committees; he was president of the Tulsa section; and last but not least he was secretary of the Foundation Trustee Associates. Bob is, in particular, receiving Life Membership for his volunteer contributions that have helped further SEG’s historical preservation efforts. Bob was onece a key SEG volunteer who helped plan and build the Geoscience Center. Upon the closing of the Geoscience Center in 2008, Bob co-chaired the committee that reported to the Executive Committee possible ways forward for the museum and youth education. Bob oversaw the professional cataloging of the entire collection of SEG historical artifacts, including hundreds of items in the basement of the business office. Bob has also spearheaded efforts to transform part of the collection into valuable public exhibits. This has resulted in SEG exhibits on display at Fugro (Houston), the University of Oklahoma (Sarkeys Energy Center), and Oklahoma State University (Noble Research Center – Boone Pickens School of Geology). Bob is currently working on another SEG exhibit for possible display at the Oklahoma History Museum in Oklahoma City, as part of a major oil and gas exhibit. These efforts have helped SEG’s collection of historical geophysical artifacts to be more available to the public and to future geophysicists.
Biography Citation for SEG Life Membership 2012
Contributed by Stephen J. Hill
I am honored to share observations of Bob Wyckoff with you as we all honor him with our Society’s Life Membership. I first knew Bob as a fellow Ponca City Conoco employee, responsible for Conoco seismic field crews.
Bob is easy to recognize. He is the tall guy with the infectious, ear-to-ear, grin. That grin reflects his outlook on life. Bob is one of the most positive, can-do guys I know. To me, he epitomizes the “get-the-job-done” attitude that I especially find among those in the acquisition portion of our industry, Bob’s chosen specialty. Bob has vast experience in “getting-the-job-done” around the world. Thus, if he encounters a temporary obstacle, he expresses the following positive attitude: “I’ve overcome a thousand of these obstacles before; this is just one more to overcome.” Not only is he the sort of person that you will want on your side, but his outstanding instinctive empathy for others automatically places him on your side. He is among the best. Our Society honors this entire man.
Bob’s multidimensional contributions to the Society reflect his can-do attitude, much to our Society’s benefit. Bob gladly assumed leadership roles in his local society as the Geophysical Society of Tulsa’s vice president (1979) and president (1980). As Bob’s workplace responsibilities increased when he became responsible for Conoco’s worldwide seismic acquisition activity, Bob was also serving the Society as our Secretary-Treasurer (1988- 9). He continued in that tradition of Society service as the Arrangements Chairman for the 1984 Annual Meeting and as a member of the SEG/Moscow 1992 Meeting Committee.
The introductory paragraphs, at the heading of this citation, applaud Bob’s contribution to SEG’s historical preservation efforts. During the existence of the Geoscience Center at the SEG business office in Tulsa and following its closure, Bob has been a feet-on-the-ground volunteer, a man who gets the work done. In particular, after the Geoscience Center closure, Bob saw the opportunities to systematically record the collection for posterity, and to give a portion of the collection new visibility in university and industry settings. Bob provided the dual ingredients of manpower and the brainpower, taking SEG’s historical preservation efforts through the transition based on his vision for its future.
Others have also recognized Bob’s contributions: Geophysical Society of Tulsa Honorary Membership, Distinguished Geoscience Center Volunteer Award, HPC Volunteer Award, IAGC Award of Recognition, and most significantly for Bob as the manager of the Conoco Geophysical Operations Group, a three-time recipient of Conoco President’s Safety and Environmental Award on behalf of his group. To all who know of Bob and his accomplishments, he presents an impressive role model, one who is well deserving of our recognition.
