Doris M. Curtis

Curtis began her career working in the petroleum industry with small independent companies in 1939; she wanted to measure depths of the earth and study the characteristics of multiple subsurfaces. In 1941, Curtis began working for the Shell Oil Company. Initially, she worked as a paleontologist, until she was transferred to different locations to work as a stratigrapher and geologist (1942-1950). As a member of the Houston Geological Society, she participated in the construction of technical papers for the Gulf Coast Section. Marriage to a Shell engineer ended her employment at Shell, due to nepotism and gender discrimination; she then taught at University of Houston (1949-1951), then at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, (1951-1954), where she made contributions to the study of biofacies through her participation in the American Petroleum Institute Project 51. Curtis taught at University of Oklahoma from 1954-1959 and, in later years, at Rice University (1979-1991). In 1960, she began working in the petroleum field once more and was assigned to Shell's Baton Rouge Exploration Office and Curtis was promoted to the position of senior geologist. In 1975, Curtis was transferred to work in Houston, TX, where she was served as staff geologist of Shell's International Ventures Group. Curtis retired from Shell in 1979 at the age of 65. Then in 1979, Curtis, with her longtime friend and partner, Dorothy Jung Echols, formed a geology consulting firm, by the name of 'Curtis and Echols. Through this consulting firm, Curtis used her skills to map the deposition of hydrocarbons in various locations. She investigated petroleum rich areas and published in 1970, SEPM (Society for Sedimentary Geology) Special Publication No. 15 "Sandstone deltas in petroleum rich Miocene of coastal Louisiana". Curtis gave presentations at various universities on geological topics. During her time as a geologist, she has produced and contributed to over 30 papers on numerous topics in the geological field.

In 1990, she was elected the first woman president of The Geological Society of America, which consisted of roughly 17,000 members. Even during her battle with acute leukemia, she continued to travel as the GSA president, demonstrating the same strength and perseverance that for which she was known. Curtis was an explorer in her field, working on the Gulf Coast for over 50 years. Her contributions to the geological field facilitated the development of new concepts for interpreting the geology of basins world-wide and the study of time-synchronous deltas, initiated in Louisiana, and published in the SEPM.

Advocacy

Curtis was adamant on social justice issues; she was a member of the League of Women Voters and earned her the position of president. Curtis was also a member and leader of the Environmental Quality Committee of Shell Oil where she addressed how the company could limit their pollution and impact on the environment.

Curtis received the Matrix award in Houston for Women in Community Service.

With her background in geology and industry, she became a member of the Environmental Quality Committee and worked towards the conservation of the environments that industries are founded on and led her to be appointed in 1967 as one of four delegates from the United States to the USSR in an exchange visit to tour petroleum provinces in the Baku area of the Caspian Sea. (need citation)