Citation: In recognition for his dedicated service to the Canadian Region, the House of Delegates, the Association and his enduring commitment to the next generation of leaders.
David was born into a geological family. David’s father, Jim, spent his early career as a field geologist with the Geologic Survey of Canada following on as a carbonate specialist with Gulf Oil. David spent much of his childhood hiking, fishing and camping in the Alberta Rockies where Jim would often “interrupt” prime fishing time by pointing out interesting outcrops and describing the link to the subsurface geology in the oil and gas fields of the Western Canada Basin.
David’s commitment to serve the AAPG began after spending several years working as a geologist on various international and frontier exploration projects. As projects evolved, David realized that AAPG membership was critical in allowing him to do his job effectively and provided access to an amazing network of geoscientists. In 2007 David became an AAPG Canada Region Delegate serving as Canada Region President for three years. David was involved in numerous AAPG Canada Region activities, including coordinating the Canada Region teams within the successful Imperial Barrel Awards program. David was also involved with Calgary’s highly successful (and Canada’s first) 2010 ICE conference, acting as co-general vice chair.
After attending his first annual House of Delegates meeting, David was taken with the commitment and enthusiasm shown by the Delegate members for the betterment of the Association and the profession in general. Wanting to give back to the Association that had helped so much with his career, David was soon actively involved as Chair for a number of House of Delegate committees (Resolutions, Nominations and Elections, Credentials) and a member of other committees (Student Chapters, International Regions, Membership Recruitment and Retention). In 2012 David received AAPG’s Distinguished Service award and, during the 2014/2015 term, served as Chair of the House of Delegates.
The link to a career in global exploration and AAPG involvement has been extremely beneficial for David. AAPG has introduced him to a great network of geoscientists worldwide who have made a real difference in his career development. Looking back, the key individuals who have made a significant difference in his career development were AAPG members. Through mentorship with the next generation of geoscientists David tries to impress upon new grads that the Geosciences is an amazing career in which there are so many different opportunities and interesting paths to follow and early involvement with societies, like AAPG, will give you back so much more than you put into it.