George Mott
Marriages
Elizabeth E. Peth - August 26, 1946
Burial Details
Obituaries
Grand Junction Daily Sentinel page 3 D Obituary - December 14, 2014
George Mott passed away at his
home in Grand Junction, December
5, 2014. He was born on August
12, 1924 to Harry A. Mott, Sr.
and Josia Griffin Bailey in Grand
Junction, Colorado. He attended
Grand Junction public schools,
graduated from Grand Junction
High School in 1942 and entered
Colorado University in the fall of
1942. In the spring of 1943 he volunteered
for military service and was placed in the U.S. Army. After
basic training at Camp Cullen, California, he was selected for the Army
Specialized Training Program (ASTP), which placed former college
students in various colleges and universities to pursue engineering or
medical courses. After about a year the ASTP was cancelled and Mr.
Mott was assigned to an engineering light equipment company where
he received construction training in California, Louisiana and South
Carolina.
His outfit was shipped to the European Theater of Operation in 1944
and landed on Utah Beach as part of the U.S. invasion force. The
company was later assigned to the Third Army under General George
Patton where it provided construction equipment services to various
combat engineer units as the Third Army advanced through France,
Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany to Passau, Austria when the war
ended. The company mainly helped build temporary bridges across
rivers that the retreating German Army had destroyed, including the
Rhine, Maine and Moselle Rivers. They later provided construction
equipment for the U.S. military cemetery at Ham, Luxembourg.
After graduation from Colorado University in 1948, George received
a commission in the Navy Civil Engineering Corps and was later called
up for one and a half years active duty during the Korean War. He
served as a Public Works Planning Officer at a large Navy munitions
plant and mine storage depot which was being reactivated for the Korean
War.
After being discharged in WWII, George returned to Grand Junction
and married Elizabeth E. Peth on August 26, 1946. He then returned
to Colorado University and graduated in 1948 with a B.S. in Civil Engineering.
After graduation, he was employed by The Texas Company
(later renamed Texaco, Inc.) in New Orleans, Louisiana. He advanced
through various district and division assignments until 1959 when he
accepted a position as Chief Marine Civil Engineer with a three-company
consortium in Caracas, Venezuela. In 1961 he returned to New
Orleans with Texaco. On February 1, 1970 he was promoted to Manager,
Central Offshore Engineering, a newly established engineering organization
set up to provide engineering and construction management
services to Texaco¹s worldwide producing departments encompassing
more than thirty countries worldwide.
In 1957 a daughter, Collyer A. Mott, was born in Metairie, Louisiana,
and a son Christopher J. Mott was born in 1960 in Grand Junction,
Colorado. They both now reside in Grand Junction after having lived
and worked in Louisiana, Florida and Montana.
During 1961 and 1962 Mr. Mott attended Loyola University Law
School in New Orleans for two semesters of Louisiana law. He subsequently
did graduate work in soil mechanics, including a newly developed
computer designed laterally loaded pile program developed by
the University of Texas at Austin, Texas. Later he did graduate work
in management at Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Mr. Mott was a licensed Civil Engineer and Land Surveyor in Louisiana
for thirty seven years and a licensed Civil Engineer in Texas for
thirty five years.
As offshore drilling and producing operations progressed from the
Gulf of Mexico to other areas of the world, various governments wanted
to develop a standard code for the classification and certification
of the design, fabrication, transportation and installation of offshore
fixed and floating drilling and producing platforms, pipelines and other
facilities for use in any marine area of the world. Such a code existed
for ships and therefore the task of writing a similar code for offshore
platforms, etc. was assigned to quasi-governmental ship classification
societies such as Lloyds Registry of Shipping in the U.K. , Det Norske
Veritas in Norway and The American Bureau of Shipping in the U.S.
Since none of these organizations had much experience in this unique
new science, they each formed industry advisory committees composed
of experienced engineers from oil companies, drilling contractors,
construction contractors and boat operators to assist in writing the
codes. Mr. Mott served about three years on these three committees.
The codes thereby produced, and others which followed, now govern
the design, fabrication, transportation and installation of offshore oil
platforms and other facilities worldwide. Mr. Mott also served several
years on an oil industry advisory committee established by the Commandant
of the U.S. Coast Guard in carrying out its duties relating to
the offshore oil operations in U.S. waters and he served as chairman of
that committee for two terms.
In January and February, 1979, after the Nixon administration had
established diplomatic relations with China, Mr. Mott went to China
as one of eight Texaco/Chevron executives to apply for exploration and
production concessions in the South China Sea. This group was headed
by the Vice Chairman of the Board for Texaco and the President
of Chevron and included Texaco¹s Vice President Eastern Hemisphere
Operations, its Chief Geophsicist and Mr. Mott for engineering and
construction. Also included were Chevron’s Head Geologist, Senior
Drilling Engineer and a member of its research department. At that
time American and most other foreigners could only enter China with
an invitation from the Chinese government. Mr. Mott was issued visa
#99 to enter China. The Chinese government provided all travel arrangements
in China, which included Beijing, Shanghai and southern
China area north of Hong Kong. Visits were also made to such now
famous areas as The Great Wall, The Forbidden City, etc.
Texaco and Chevron obtained concessions in the South China Sea
and subsequently obtained production there. The companies were requested
to train several Chinese engineers in offshore engineering and
operations. Mr. Mott¹s Central Offshore Engineering Department was
selected to provide that training and it hosted seven Chinese engineers
in New Orleans, four engineers for two weeks and three other engineers
for six months to one year. Over the years, COE also trained
engineers from Indonesia, Nigeria and Angola.
Mr. Mott authored several technical publications over his 38 year
career and excelled as an inventor. At the time of his retirement on January
1, 1987, he held 38 active U.S. patents, all involving offshore and
Arctic oil and gas technology. He also held 292 foreign patents making
a total of 330 patents in 40 countries around the world.
George and Elizabeth returned to Grand Junction in 1997 and he designed
and built three homes for the family where they currently reside.
In 1988 he established a second residence in Lausanne, Switzerland
for a year and then moved to Menton, France where he maintained
a second residence for over twenty years. His wife Elizabeth passed
away May 11, 2006. Mr. Mott is survived by his son Christopher Mott
and daughter Collyer Mott Gainer and her husband Jeffery, of Grand
Junction, and a niece, Claudia Morris of Montrose.
Friends and family may leave condolences at
www.MartinMortuary.com
