At the outset, it is not possible to press Eugene McDermott into any single classification or category. Indeed, his interests and accomplishments portray an individual with a wide range of talents and attributes.
     Eugene started out with an Eastern heritage being born in Brooklyn, New York, on February 12, 1899 where he lived until graduated from Stevens Institute of Technology in 1919 with an M. E. degree. Engineering assignments first, with Goodyear Rubber Company, and then with Western Electric Company inspired a desire for graduate studies at Columbia University, which he completed in 1925 with an M. A. degree in physics. He was then ready for a most exciting career challenge, which turned out to be with J. C. Karcher in a distinctly new kind of venture the newly organized Geophysical Research Corporation of Tulsa. The seismic reflection method was introduced by GRC and accepted by the petroleum industry as a promising new tool during the next five years then in 1930, with Karcher as president and McDermott as vice-president, GSI was launched by the two of them with great momentum.
     It was during the first year of the GSI venture that Eugene McDermott hired me and thus began our friendship and close association which have endured for 41 years a time period which has witnessed many evolutionary changes in technology and also in human affairs. Naturally, I am proud of this dual record and so I feel a special pleasure in composing these few remarks on the occasion of the SEG electing him to Honorary Membership.
     The reflection method was still a new idea in those early days, which means that instruments, mechanical equipment, and techniques were in a very embryonic stage of development. McDermott's ability as an engineer was revealed in his early designs of sensitive, yet rugged, seismometers, amplifiers, filter systems, recording cameras, and related practical field logistics.
     His versatility and great interest in probing new frontiers of scientific knowledge that could be applied to petroleum exploration resulted in his evaluation of electrical methods during the mid-thirties and of geochemistry in the early forties. Such investigations are recorded by his several early papers in the Bulletin of the AAPG, as well as in Geophysics. Five U. S. patents provide further evidence of his curious, yet analytical mind.
     Karcher found increasing interest in petroleum development during the mid-thirties, and McDermott became president of GSI. The company was then completely reorganized in late 1941 with Eugene McDermott, H. B. Peacock, J. E. Jonsson, and Cecil Green as co-directors. McDermott continued as president of the new GSI, which after World War II, attained a growth pattern resulting in the present-day Texas Instruments. He is still a director after having served the company for many years until his retirement as chairman.
     Mr. Mac, as he was known to many of his associates, has often said that his success was due to surrounding himself with capable people, but he seems to stop short of giving himself credit for good human discernment and the possession of just the right kind of personality to inspire respect and the will to do by others. Motivation of others was natural as he found it easy to delegate authority, to constructively criticize, yet to give credit without stint.
     His scientific interests became increasingly coupled with a natural human concern for others. Without doubt, the discovery (and production) of petroleum has added immeasurably to our standard of living, but, even beyond this, the quality of life itself has concerned him in several practical ways.
     Helping younger people find themselves in terms of natural aptitudes soon aroused his interest in a broad spectrum of education-research pursuits. Thus, for many years he has been deeply concerned with behavioral and medical correlations with basic structural taxonomy of human beings which has involved his support of research through the years at the Universities of Texas, Columbia, Oregon, and Case Western Reserve. He likes to call this Biological Humanics.
     The whole gamut of education became a natural corollary to this great interest in human beings, starting with such examples as St. Mark's School in Dallas for boys, of which he was a founder, and on to the university level with current membership on the Boards of Southern Methodist, Southwestern Medical School Foundation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, etc.
     The wide breadth of his human interests reached also into the arts as early as 1945 he was the first president of the Margo Jones Theatre in Dallas involving the newly conceived theatre-in-the-round idea. For many years he has actively shared Mrs. McDermott's deep interest in the Dallas Library, The Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.
     These are but the highlights of the full and very productive life of a man who starting out in exploration geophysics, has found this to be also an avenue to so many other worthy pursuits and interests, all with one very important factor in common a relation to the vital task of trying to improve the quality of life for mankind.
     Naturally, he has received many honors and distinctions through the years. The SEG gave him earliest recognition by electing him President in 1933. More recently, he has received the Santa Rita Medal the highest award bestowed by the University of Texas System Development Board. He is an honorary member of both the Dallas Geological Society and the Dallas Geophysical Society, while his old alma mater, Stevens Institute of Technology, has awarded him an Honorary Doctor of Science Degree.
     Eugene McDermott can be variously referred to as a pioneer geophysicist, scientist, engineer, businessman, a philanthropist, but best of all, we are all proud to know him as a wonderful human being.

     Cecil H. Green