COmmittee Reports
Honors and Awards Committee
Distinguished Member of the House
Citation: To James S. McGhay: In recognition of quiet steady leadership and service to the House of Delegates as well as to his affiliated society, the Mid-Continent Section and to AAPG.
Jim McGhay grew up in the oil country of northern Oklahoma, but did not become attracted to geology until taking an elective in Historical Geology at Oklahoma State. At that point, and encouraged by professors Gary Stewart and John Shelton, the study of the earth and particularly petroleum geology and resource development became a defining passion, which continues to this day.
Thanks to an invitation by OSU alumni and active AAPG member Herb Davis, Jim has been involved with AAPG since his undergraduate studies, an association which only became increasingly important during a career working with limited staff in small independent oil producers in Oklahoma and as an independent geologist most of his career. During three-plus decades of working numerous states and basins, AAPG has provided not only papers and studies to draw upon, education and speakers to learn from, but untold numbers of comrades and friends to confer with and rely upon.
He currently works as Exploitation Vice President and Chief Geologist of Mid-Con Energy in Tulsa, which he helped to found in 2004, and is focused on conventional oil reserves including secondary recovery and EOR.
While a member of AAPG since 1972, Jim truly has only been actively involved since the early 1980s through his Tulsa Geological Society and Midcontinent Section activities and leadership roles. These led to increasingly active roles in AAPG including the House of Delegates (since 1992), Investment and Pension Committees (since 1999), Advisory Council (2 terms), Section Committee founder, member of the Public Outreach and Preservation of Geoscience Data Committees, representative of AAPG on the PTTC Board, and currently AAPG Treasurer.
Other professional interests include various local geological societies, the Oklahoma State School of Geology Advisory Board, and several energy data libraries, including Energy Libraries Online.
Jim’s current interests include anything related to AAPG, spending time with his family (wife Carolyn, kids and in-laws, 8 ½ grandkids) traveling to the southern mountains, playing tennis and growing Mid-Con Energy.
—Bob Countryman