Richard "Dick" Foley
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     In August 1952, Dick married Sue Pearl who was a secretary for K & E Drilling at the time.  Dick and Sue have raised five children: Christopher Matthew, an artist who resides in Wichita,  Michelle Cocking, Wichita, Melinda who manages the family business "Food for Thought," Mary Pat Elpers, who also works in the store, Maureen Dime who resides in Del Mar, CA and has initiated an internet business.

   Dick Foley (2nd from left) at 25 with drilling crew

     Dick was with Lion Oil until 1953 when he became an independent, Dick does think that Thornton Anderson influenced his career.  George Collins, a very prominent oil attorney in Wichita during Dick's time in the "oil patch," was also a great influence in Dick's career. 

     At the time that he became an independent, he was contacted by Harry Connelly and went to work for Harbar Drilling .   While working at Harbar, Dick has what he describes as his most harrowing experience.  Dick and Harry were flying from Wichita on the day of the infamous Udall tornado.  They skirted tornados all the way from Kansas, finally landing in a small airport on the Chicago lake front. 

     Dick left Harbar to once more become an independent and he formed the company, known as Black Dot Oil, with partner George Dent.  Dick later returned to being an independent and was  kept extremely busy watching wells in the Wilson County area for the Ash brothers, Glenn Rupe, Stan Bell and others.   Another perhaps harrowing experience of a different nature were those wells in which he had perhaps 20 interest owner/farmers "hanging over his shoulder" on a location.

     When asked "who the biggest character that you encountered in the oil fields," he does not necessarily indicate that they were characters, but that they were certainly interesting and he names such well-known operators as: George Bruce, Tom Palmer, and Ed Adair.

     In 1969, while on a well east of Great Bend, he listened to a Halliburton cementer, who had been in Algeria, talk about a well, seventy miles from the coast which could completely load a tanker, ten miles at sea , in a very short interval of time.  Dick decided at that time that not all of his future was in the oilfields of Kansas and perhaps he should be looking at other potential businesses.

     In 1971, he and his wife, Sue started "Food for Thought" perhaps because in his youth he had polio and was looking at ways to help people maintain their health through good food and nutritional supplements.  Sue was involved in the daily operations of the business and Dick began working personally in the business in 1985.

     Dick in the past has been a member of both the KGS and the AAPG, but in recent years where he has not been directly associated with geology, he has not maintained those memberships.

     Even though his career has taken a different direction  in recent years, he would still be a petroleum geologist, if he had it to do over.  He does have advice for the young geologist entering the field,. which is "know thy computer" and he would also include, “know its limitations,” in that advice. 

     Dick and his family have made a real contribution to the community with their contribution of an extensive Native American art collection to the Indian Center Museum.

     Dick hasn't any plans to retire and plans to continue to aid the community with such projects as the acquisition of a duplex in the Hilltop area which he is remodeling with the thought of breathing some life into that area.   He also wants to investigate some East Indian herbs that may aid people in maintaining their health.

     Hopefully this profile outlines the very successful career of a petroleum geologist who changed directions and was equally successful in another career.

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