George Means Bevier
George Means Bevier was one of the first geologists in the nation to combine geology and geophysics in exploration for oil and gas. In the early 1920's Mr. Bevier already had invented a seismograph detector and was engaged in experimental work which later enabled him to interpret seismograph pictures of oil and gas prospects and coordinate them with his geological findings.
George Bevier was born in Brookville, Pennsylvania, on March 2, 1888. He was a seventh-generation decendant of Huguenot Louis Bevier who came to America in 1675 to escape religious persecution, and settled in New York State.
After attending Carnegie Tech and the University of Pittsburgh, where he received a B.S. degree in metallurgy in 1913, he served with the Pennsylvania State Geological Survey for two years. During World War I he joined a group of geologists to explore in Costa Rica and Panama for the Sinclair Oil Corporation and was also attached to U.S. Military Intelligence, particularly in the Canal Zone. He later worked in the Lubrication Branch of the Department of Military Aeronautics in Washington, D.C.
From 1919 to 1924, Mr. Bevier was District Geologist for the Atlantic Refining Company in the Gulf Coast area of Texas and Louisiana. It was during this period that he invented the seismograph detector and, in 1924, engaged in experimental refraction work for the Atlantic Refining Company in Mexico. From 1926 to 1930 he was Gulf Coast District Geologist and Geophysicist for the Pure Oil Company and succeeded in finding various oil fields by combining the methods of geology and geophysics.
In 1930, Mr. Bevier left the Pure Oil Company to become an independent geologist. With confidence in his own methods and the courage to prospect where others had found no promise of oil, he located the main producing area of the Conroe oil field in Montegomery County, Texas, one of the leading fields of that state and one of the giant oil and gas fields of the nation.
The University of Pittsburgh selected George Bevier to receive an honorary degree of Doctor of Science in 1937 and a Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1964. He remained an interested alumnus through the years, contributing mainly to the Swanson School Of Engineering and Mines.