Grover C. Smith Oral History Interview

Oral history interview by Mary Heers with Grover C. Smith, Topics include: Living in several U.S. States in his youth; Studying math and physics in college; Employment with a multi-national oil company studying seismic activity and international travel; Learning on the job and rising in the ranks; Tectonic plate movement; Mapping the earth through seismic data; Visiting family in Hyrum and making it home; Helping his father upholster furniture in his youth; Retirement and retirement work projects such as working at the L.D.S. Temple and getting book published; Being an introvert, taking a speech class, and participating in theater; Joining the Army to pay for college and returning years later to finish his education; Being introduced to geophysics by his oil company job; Places he would like to visit; Not letting little blips on a seismographs keep him from living a normal life; A power grab by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in the 1980s and U.S. oil companies going bankrupt; Waiting in line for fuel at gas stations; Interesting projects in the Dominican Republic, at the Great Salt Lake, and in Indonesia.

Mr. Grover Smith lives in Hyrum, Utah, but was originally from Muskogee, Oklahoma. He has lived all over the country during his career as a geophysicist, doing seismic surveys and data analytics, primarily for oil and gas companies. He tells lots of interesting stories of seismic activity and oil drilling.