Dr. Eric Vance Eslinger - Remembered

It is with great sadness to inform the EMD that Dr. Eric Vance Eslinger passed away peacefully at home on September 11, 2019 at the age of 75 following a battle with cancer. Eric was born in Arlington, WV, the son of the late Glenn and Jane Andrew Eslinger.

Eric received a B.S. in Geology from West Virginia University and a Ph.D. in Geology from Case Western Reserve University, Ohio. Eric was employed as research and operations geologist with Cities Service/Occidental Petroleum in Tulsa, Oklahoma for nine years, and was active in the environmental hydrogeology industry. Eric also held academic positions at Mary Washington University (Virginia), West Georgia University, Georgia Institute of Technology (adjunct), Union College (adjunct), and recently retired Professor Emeritus at The College of Saint Rose (Albany, NY).

His research interests were primarily in petrophysics, reservoir characterization, clastic diagenesis, and clay mineralogy. Eric coauthored the Clay Minerals for Petroleum Geologists and Engineers, SEPM Short Course Notes, No. 22, 468 p. (1988) and was coordinator of the Clay Minerals for Log Analysts and Petrophysicists, SPWLA 41st Annual Symposium, Dallas, TX, June, 2000.

Eric founded a geological consulting company eGAMLS, Inc. that specializes in reservoir characterization using a proprietary software application (GAMLS-Geologic Analysis via Maximum Likelihood System) that uses probabilistic clustering analysis of well log data to solve petrophysical problems. AAPG members may be familiar with his published work on unconventional shale reservoirs such as the Haynesville Shale (Chapter 14, AAPG Memoir 97) and La Luna Formation (URTeC, 2014 paper #1934648). He, with others such as Drs. Michael and Susan Herron, independently developed methods to use the attributes of minerals to solve for hydrocarbon saturation. While they processed their methods in different ways, their goal was the same; to use geologic information to solve geological problems. Eric's approach was to use maximum likelihood methods to develop probable solutions for mineralogy from elements, thus solving abundance of minerals and hydrocarbons.

Eric was always pleased to share methods to advance the science the result of which made him a great professor. As his friend, Dr. Noga Vaisblait put it, "It is heartbreaking. I am so very sad. The world lost a great scientist and a terrific person. He will be dearly missed." Also, as Mike Berhane (of the Alberta Geological Survey, Edmonton) noted, "...I have great honor and respect and admiration for him. We lost a towering intellectual and in general, petrophysics has lost a giant." We echo their thoughts and add that Eric was a friend you could count on to always do the right thing and use science to provide the basis for all his ideas.

Eric is survived by his beloved wife Trudy Stearns Eslinger; his children Oliver Eslinger (Austin) of Pasadena, CA, and Laura Lynn (Alex) of London, England; his sister Von Maddox of Prince Frederick, MD; and his grandchildren Julian and Maya Eslinger, and Dylan Lynn.

Memorial contributions may be made to Five Rivers http://friendsoffiverivers.org or the American Cancer Society http://donate3.cancer.org.

Bob Everett and Fran Hein