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Gus Archie was a graduate of the University of Wisconsin with degrees in both mining and electrical engineering. His professional career was spent with Shell Oil Company where, as a scientist, engineer, and administrator, he contributed significantly to the science and technology of the oil industry.

Archie is perhaps best known for his contributions to petrophysics. The prototype equation relating rock porosity to various electrical properties of rock bears his name: Archie’s equation. He played the key role in identification of producible horizons at the giant Elk City Field in Oklahoma, an episode which dramatically demonstrated for the first time the role that well log measurements could play in identifying pay zones.

Archie was a very modest and unpretentious man, yet wielded considerable influence in his choice of staff to work with and for him. Many of these people went on, on their own, to make major contributions in their own way in development geology, reservoir engineering, as well as petrophysics. He had a remarkably good feeling for working with the earth and recognizing others who could improve our understanding of it.