J. Clarence Karcher

John Clarence Karcher (April 15, 1894 – July 13, 1978) was an American geophysicist and businessman. He invented and eventually commercialized the reflection seismograph, applying for patents on this in 1919. In doing this he created the means by which most of the world's oil reserves have been discovered. In 1930 he and Eugene McDermott founded Geophysical Service Incorporated, a pioneering provider of seismic exploration services to the petroleum industry. This company later spun off what would become Texas Instruments.

Early life

John Clarence Karcher was born on April 15, 1894 in Dale, Indiana. He was the son of Leo and Mary (Madlon) Karcher. When he was five the family moved to Oklahoma Territory and settled in a farming community near Hennessey. In 1912 he earned a high school diploma.

Education

As an undergraduate Karcher attended the University of Oklahoma where in 1916 he received a BS degree in both Electrical Engineering and physics and was at the head of his class. When the university was granted a chapter in 1918, he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Upon graduation Karcher accepted the Tyndal Fellowship in Physics at the University of Pennsylvania where he began graduate work in September 1916. For his PhD thesis he studied X-ray emissions. World War I interrupted his graduate studies and he served with the United States Bureau of Standards. His assignment was to locate heavy artillery batteries in France by studying acoustic waves the guns generated in the air. He noted an unexpected event in his research and switched his concentration to seismic waves in the earth. He thought it would be possible to determine the depth of underlying geological strata by vibrating the Earth's surface while precisely recording and timing the returning waves of energy.On October 16, 1920, Karcher married Lydia Kilborn; they had two children.

Career

In 1919 Karcher applied for patents in reflection seismography. In 1921 this technology was proven as a valid method in the search for oil but at the time oil prices were such there was no demand for this new technology. Karcher first went to work for the Bureau of Standards, and then joined Western Electric Company where he performed research on ocean-bottom telegraph cable. It was here that he first met a young Eugene McDermott.Later when Everette Lee DeGolyer, vice president and general manager of Amerada Petroleum Corporation of Dallas, learned of Karcher's 1921 experiments with the seismograph he held a meeting with Karcher that resulted in the creation of Geophysical Research Corporation (GRC) of Tulsa. This was as a subsidiary of Amerada. Karcher was made vice president, given a $300,000 research fund and given a 15 percent stock interest. One of his first actions after establishing headquarters in Bloomfield, New Jersey, was to hire Eugene B. McDermott, his protégé from Western Electric, then a Columbia University graduate student. GRC introduced the seismic reflection method which over the next five years was accepted by the petroleum industry as a promising new tool. In 1930, with the backing of DeGolyer, now president of Amerada, Karcher and McDermott launched Geophysical Service Incorporated, which was later sold and renamed as Texas Instruments. Karcher served as president and McDermott as vice-president.

On June 4, 1971, the Geophysical Society of Oklahoma city erected a monument stating that at this site they "proved the validity of the reflection seismograph as a useful tool in the search for oil." To commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the first reflection seismic oil exploration test, a granite monument was erected at the site of this test. At this site, currently in Oklahoma City in the front lawn of Belle Isle Library, in 1921 Karcher and his team recorded their first seismic data.

To honor the memory of J. Clarence Karcher and his enormous contribution to exploration geophysics, the J. Clarence Karcher Award is awarded in recognition of significant contributions to the science and technology of exploration geophysics by a young geophysicist of outstanding abilities who, in the unanimous opinion of the Honors and Awards Committee and the Executive Committee, merits such recognition.