I met him twice. Both times with potential investors. I was not one, but at the Chamber we were helping him with two groups that came to the area looking for investment opportunities. More on this later.
After reading his obituary, I learned even more about this unique individual. His name is Marvin Gearhart and he co-founded Gearhart Industries.
Gearhart Industries made wire logging tools used by the oil industry when drilling for oil. However, he came up with a digital tool that could feed data into a computer, leapfrogging competitors still using an analog system. Now this small oil service provider competed with large industry leaders. like Schlumberger.
This is a fairly common story today. A small, innovative firm develops a new technology and jumps ahead of the industry leader. Except this was done about 45 years ago.
Two notes of interest. The first one, I went to the Fort Worth article in Wikipedia. In section 11 it lists famous people who were born or lived in Fort Worth for a period of time. Marvin Gearhart was not listed. That is a significant oversight in my opinion.
The second one. He was giving a tour to potential investors on a bus. We were driving around the Gearhart Industries property. We would get off, see a part of the operation and get on. He would always as the bus driver to go to the next stop by saying "Mr. NAME, please take us to..." That always impressed me. From his obituary it sounds exactly like him.
The second one. He was giving a tour to potential investors on a bus. We were driving around the Gearhart Industries property. We would get off, see a part of the operation and get on. He would always as the bus driver to go to the next stop by saying "Mr. NAME, please take us to..." That always impressed me. From his obituary it sounds exactly like him.
Link to article: https://www.wsj.com/articles/marvin-gearhart-applied-digital-technology-to-oil-drilling-11564756202?shareToken=stce8e3cc5610b4fa8bf4d2cce3e04cd90
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