- Thomas Barger
Thomas Barger (1909 - 1986) was an American
geologist , explorer, miner, businessman and former CEO of the Arabian American Oil Company (formerly Aramco nowSaudi Aramco ).Biography
Thomas Barger was born in
Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1909 to Mary Barger and Michael Thomas Barger.He grew up in
Linton, North Dakota and graduated from theUniversity of North Dakota 's College of Engineering inGrand Forks, North Dakota with a degree inmining andmetallurgy in 1931.After college he worked as a surveyor and miner in Canada, an engineer, assayer and assistant manager of a silver and
radium mine in the Northwest Territories and as an assistant professor of mining at the University of North Dakota.He accepted a position at the Anaconda Copper Mining Company but the
Great Depression and falling copper prices resulted in his being forced to find work elsewhere.In 1937 Barger interviewed with J.O. Nomland, the chief geologist at the Standard Oil Company of California, in San Francisco and accepted a job as a surveyor in Saudi Arabia.
He married Kathleen Elizabeth Ray on November 18, 1937 shortly before heading off to Saudi Arabia by himself for what ended up being three years exploring potential oil sites in the Saudi Arabian desert along with fellow American geologists
Max Steineke ,Jerry Harriss ,Ernie Berg and others as well as a group ofBedouin guides headed byKhamis bin Rimthan of theAjman tribe.After the men discovered Saudi Arabia's vast fields of oil Barger began a career with Aramco that would last 32 years. He started as a surveyor and geologist then worked as the director of Local Government Relations, was the company representative to the Saudi government and was manager for Concession Affairs.
Fluent in Arabic, Barger was a key element in the company's relationship with the Saudi government and people. He ensured that the goal of the company was to be mutually beneficial, training and employing thousands of Saudis and eventually becoming a Saudi run and owned entity (which it is today).
In 1957 Barger became a vice president and assistant to President
Norman Hardy . In 1959 Barger became president of Aramco and in 1961 he was appointed the company's Chief Executive Officer.Kathleen and Thomas lived in
Dhahran and had six children. Barger retired from the company in 1969.ee also
*
Discovery! The Search for Arabian Oil
*Max Steineke
*Saudi Aramco External links
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DE4DD103CF931A25754C0A960948260 New York Times] - Obituary
* [http://www.outintheblue.com/kathleen.htm Out in the Blue] - Pictures of Tom Barger and his wife and of Saudi Arabia from the 1930's onward
* [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,872837,00.html?iid=chix-sphere Time Magazine] - Personal File on Thomas Barger
* [http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/196905/tom.barger-myth.or.man..htm Tom Barger: Myth or Man?] - Saudi Aramco World Magazine cover storyReferences
*"Tom Barger of N.D. Heads One of World's Oil Giants." The Forum. 24 Apr. 1966. (The Forum is a newspaper in Fargo - Moorhead North Dakota).
* [http://learn.aero.und.edu/pages/209/20962/ North Dakota Entrepreneur Hall of Fame Inductees]
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