Baytown Briefs (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 07, No. 19, Ed. 1 Friday, May 8, 1959 Page: 2 of 6
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Baytown Briefs • May 8, 1959
Page 2
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Karl Opryshek
H. Frank Goss
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J. R. Barsalou
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G. W. Wilson
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Harrop Retires June 1; Goss,
Opryshek To Leave August 1
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Three well-known mem-
bers of refinery management
announced their retirement
plans last Friday. They are
James Harrop, assistant
Plants manager; H. Frank
Goss, Operations advisor;
and Karl Opryshek, Process
superintendent.
21
W. B. Franklin
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Goss, Opryshek Continue
Services Until August 1
Mr. Goss and Mr. Opryshek
both retire on August 1. Mr.
Goss received a B.S. in chemistry
at Rice in 1923—the same year
he started with Humble as a
Process operator at the refinery.
After a year at the old pressure
stills and the then-new thermal
cracking coils, he joined the “De-
velopment Department” (now
Research and Development divi-
sion) as a research chemist in
July, 1924. His association with
early developments in solvent ex-
traction led to his transfer into
operations at the SO, No. 1 Plant
in 1929.
A year later, Mr. Goss was
made foreman in charge of the
newly-constructed lubricating oil
manufacturing plant, and later
he headed up both the SO, plant
and the Lube plant. He went to
Ingleside refinery as assistant su-
perintendent in May, 1936, and
became superintendent in August
of that year.
At the end of the war, Ingle-
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Employees In Four
Divisions Reduce
Off-Sick Time
The M & C, Process, Opera-
tions Services, and Technical di-
visions all showed decreases over
previous months in the number
of employees off sick during the
period from March 16 through
April 12.
There were 16 departments
(includes 194 men) with no em-U)
ployees off sick during this cur-
rent month. FCCU No. 2, Light
Oil Ireaters, and Propane were
the largest departments of this
group.
W
Assistant Manager's Last
Active Service Was May 1
Mr. Harrop’s retirement be-
comes effective June 1. His last
day of active service was May 1.
He received B.S. and M.S. de-
grees from the Massachusetts In-
stitute of Technology and served
as an instructor in chemical en-
gineering for a year before join-
ing Humble in 1922. Two years
later, Mr. Harrop was promoted
to assistant to the superinten-
dent.
From 1925 to 1933 he
worked in the Houston Office as
assistant to J. L. Finley, general
manager of refineries. Upon his
return to Baytown as Technical
Service division head, he was
promoted to assistant superin-
tendent and head of the Coordi-
nation division in 1935.
In 1943, he became general
superintendent of the refinery,
and from 1952 through 1953 he
served in two temporary assign-
ments in the Houston Office as
a participant in the company’s
Executive Development Training
Program—assistant manager of
Operations and assistant Em-
ployee Relations manager. In
1958, Mr. Harrop was named as-
sistant Plants manager.
After his retirement, Mr. Har-
rop and his son, William Harrop,
will work in a house furnishings
business. He is also serving this
year as president of the Bay town
YMCA.
The second major group is
the present Technical division
with Dr. W. B. Franklin as its
manager. Dr. Franklin, who
holds a B.S. degree in chemical
engineering, a M.S. in chemical
engineering, and a Ph.D. in phy-
sical chemistry and chemical en-
gineering, all from the Univer-
sity of Texas, joined Humble in
1934. He has broad experience
in refinery operation, particu-
larly in the light ends recovery
section and in the distillation
section. He was head of the
Technical Service division from
1945 to 1958 when he was made
head of the newly-created Tech-
nical division.
J. R. Barsalou is now in the
newly created position of Oper-
ations manager. He is responsible
for activities of the Process, Op-
erations Services, and Mainte-
nance and Construction divisions.
He graduated from the Univer-
sity of Oklahoma in 1936 with
a B.S. degree in chemical engi-
neering. He joined Humble that
same year as a member of the
Technical Service division. Mr.
Barsalou has had broad refinery
experience, including a number
of training assignments in Hum-
ble’s Executive Development Pro-
gram. Under this program he
was general foreman of Light
Oil Treating and assistant head
of Coordination division. He also
served a year as technical assist-
ant to the manager of refining
in Humble’s Houston Office. He
was assistant Process superin-
tendent at the time his new po-
sition was announced.
Dr. Frank J. Spuhler replaces
Barsalou as head of the Polyole-
fin plant organization. He holds
a B.S. degree in chemical engi-
neering from Texas Tech, and a
M.S. in chemical engineering
*-. ■
a /
g,
hydrocarbon fractionation, re-
covery, and conversion processes.
Later his work was expanded to
include the manufacture of sol-
vents from petroleum, and the
production of aviation fuel. Mr.
W ilson was assistant division
head in Technical at the time of
his new assignment.
Other Management Changes
In Effect Since May 1
As a result of the above re-
tirements, the following changes
became effective May 1:
The divisions which reported
to Mr. Harrop during the past
year have been separated into
two major groups. One of these
will be comprised of the Coordi-
nation, Accounting, Plant Pro-
tection, Employee Relations, and
Medical divisions with I. D. Hall
assuming duties in the newly
created position of Administra-
tive manager. Mr. Hall has been
a Humble employee since 1936
when he received his B.S. degree
in chemical engineering from the
University of Texas. Most of his
career with Humble has been in
the Technical Service division,
prior to its consolidation with
Engineering last year. For sev-
eral years, Hall has been on vari-
ous assignments under the Ex-
ecutive Development Program.
and a Ph.D. in physical chemis-
try from the University of Texas.
He joined the Technical Service
division in 1939. In 1943, he be-
came assistant foreman of the
polymerization section at the
Butyl rubber plant, and in 1947
he was made foreman of the iso-
butylene extraction section as
well. In addition to the above
positions, Dr. Spuhler has held
a number of assignments under
the Executive Development Pro-
gram, including assistant general
foreman of Light Ends and as-
sistant head of Coordination di-
vision. When he was named to
replace Barsalou, Dr. Spuhler
was serving in his regular as-
signment of assistant Process
superintendent.
G. W. Wilson replaces Dr.
Spuhler on a rotational assign-
ment. He is a Rice graduate with
a B.S. in chemistry. He began
his service with Humble imine
diately after his graduation in
1935 and devoted much of his
efforts to improvements in ther-
mal cracking operations. In 1911.
he devoted his interests to light
6d
James Harrop
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4
side was closed down and Mr.
Goss tranferred back to Baytown
as superintendent of the Buta-
diene plant which was then
owned by the government and
operated by Humble. In Janu-
ary, 1948, he became assistant
general superintendent in the re-
finery, and a year later he was
named general Process superin-
tendent on the Executive De-
velopment Program. In 1950, he
became Operating superinten-
dent and in 1958 he was named
Operations advisor, the position
he now holds.
"‘My plans after retirement
are somewhat indefinite,” Mr.
Goss says, and adds: “As I am
president of the Community
Chest until February, 1960, I
will spend much of my lime in
the Baytown area working for
this worlhy cause.”
Mr. Opryshek graduated from
Texas A & M in 1922 with a B.S.
in chemical engineering and
came to work for the refinery as
a pipefiller helper the same year.
In 1923, he became a trealer
helper at the Agitators, and from
there he served as pumper from
1923 to 1925; foreman al the
Gas Absorption plant, 1925 to
1928; efficiency combustion en-
gineer from 1928 to 1929: assis-
tant foreman, Process, from
1930 to 1935; assistant to the
Process superintendent from
1935 to 1939; department head
of Distillation, Light Ends, and
Cracking Coils, 1939 to 1943;
Process superintendent, 1943 to
1949; assistant general superin-
tendent (a temporary assignment
under the company’s Executive
Development Program), 1919 to
1950; and Process superintend-
ent from 1950 to present.
After his retirement, Mr.
Opryshek plans to slay in Bay-
town where he has lived for 37
years. “I have a daughter who
is starting high school next fall
and I want to be with her dur-
ing her high school career,” he
says.
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3 Members Of Management Announce Retirement
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Baytown Briefs (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 07, No. 19, Ed. 1 Friday, May 8, 1959, newspaper, May 8, 1959; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1417708/m1/2/: accessed July 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.