14
PROFILE: Don Strong
service with the Army during the Korean War. Fel-
low employees at Skelly were Harold Smedley, Dis-
trict Geologist, Kenny Smith and Don Bieber. As a
beginning geologist at Skelly, Don found that Kenny
Smith was an excellent mentor. Later he received
from Gene Taylor, some very good well sitting ad-
vice. Don recalls one of his first solo well sitting
jobs was a test in the Hugoton gas field. It was a de-
velopment well completely surrounded by producing
gas wells As Don says "it was the type of job you
sent the dummy newcomer out on." The test fell -off
structurally about 150 feet from all of the surround-
ing producers. and it was a completely unexpected
structural anomaly. Don convinced the production
people to drill deeper and surprisingly the test was
completed as a good gas well and this was something
from which later he derived a great deal of satisfac-
tion.
Don terminated his employment with Skelly and
joined Imperial Oil of Kansas. Other employees of
Imperial during the period were: Gordon Keen,
Chuck Moore, Burt Schmidt, Orlin Phelps, Ray
Dombaugh, Bill Sladek, and Bob Williams Jr. Don
resigned from Imperial to establish his own office as
a consulting geologist in 1961.
In October 1962, Don married Lou Ella Siemsen-
Zajic and they have three children. Layton Strong
and his wife Shelley live in Pleasant Valley, Mis-
souri, Richard Zajic and wife Sharyl live in Broken
Arrow, Oklahoma, and daughter Vickie and her hus-
band Cliff Wideman reside in Wentzville, Missouri.
In his consulting practice, Don believes the big-
gest "character" he encountered was Dick Hoover.
Don has several good things to say about Dick
namely that "Dick was a pleasur e to work for and he
could delegate authority, make good decisions and
stick with them" Don has never regretted being a
geologist and says he would do it all over again.
Perhaps, his own words describe best why he feels
this way, "I had a few discoveries and a lot of dry
holes and it wasn't always easy. However, the pro c-
ess of creating and selling a prospect and seeing it
being drilled always gave me a thrill." "I also got a
great deal of pleasure in running a drill stem test and
recovering oil." Although he would still choose to
be a geologist, his advice to young geologists enter-
ing the field is "be sure you want to be a geologist."
Looking back on his own career, Don has the follow-
ing thoughts: "If I had any special talent, I think it
was well sample examination and I tried to pass on
Although in recent times, Don has only been in
Wichita for an occasional visit, many current mem-
bers of the KGS remember Don from the days when
he was an active and respected Kansas exploration-
ist.
Don's story commences in Morland, Kansas on
April 27, 1927. Don attended both grade school
and high school in Hill City. In 1943 Don played
on the only undefeated football team in Hill City's
High School's history. A fellow team member was
Roger Welty, geologist and KGS member. Don
says that he, Roger and all the surviving members
still like to brag a little about their accomplish-
ments.
After graduation from Hill City High School,
Don enrolled at Kansas State as a Physical Science/
Geology major. He had taken a course in Physical
Science and decided at that time that he wanted to
be a geologist. Also residing in Hill City at that
time was a consulting geologist, Irv Hardman. Don
says he "looked up" to Irv who was a successful
geologist and that this probably also influenced his
decision to become a geologist. Among his class-
mates are a number of geologists whose names are
very familiar to KGS members: Dick Roby, Lee
Poulsen, Bernie Lounsbury, Charlie Steincamp and
Page Twiss. Don graduated from K-State in Janu-
ary 1950. Don's favorite professor at K -State was
Dr. Frank Byrne.
In 1950, he commenced his professional em-
ployment with Skelly Oil Company. Don worked
for Skelly until 1955, which included two years of
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