For additional information about any of the news stories listed below, please contact Rodger Boyce in the NCTC Office of Marketing & Public Relations, 1525 W. California St., Gainesville, TX 76240, telephone 940-668-4255. All material Copyright 2003, North Central Texas Community College District.

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FREDDIE ROBESON

FREDDIE ROBESON MEMORIAL OIL & GAS SCHOLARSHIP ESTABLISHED AT NCTC

BOWIE, TEXAS – The newly endowed Freddie Robeson Memorial Oil and Gas Technology Scholarship fund at North Central Texas College will benefit students in its newest technical education program—one that college officials say is generating more interest and excitement than any new program in many years.

The oil business is something the late Freddie Robeson knew a lot about, having begun working in the oil field as a teenager. He continued working for the next 50 years in various oilfield-related services.

And because they were high school sweethearts, in Whitesboro, and dated for two years before marrying in 1962, Freddie Robeson was someone his widow Maurice knew a lot about as well, saying they were “great friends” for 47 years.

“Freddie worked on a roustabout crew as a teenager, worked for well service companies, was a roughneck, ran a hot oil truck and worked for a perforating company in his earlier days,” she said, “so he knew the business from top to bottom, literally.”

Robeson eventually began to work as a store manager and in sales for oilfield service companies in Texas, Oklahoma and Colorado. In 1993, he developed his own company, Quality Oilfield Service, which was later sold—improving prospects that he would have more time for leisure pursuits and being with his beloved grandchildren.

His grandchildren may have seen a little more of him, but his “retirement” from the oil business didn’t last long. In short order, he started Patriot Liquid Services in Decatur, building up quickly to about 35 trucks, and he managed that business until selling it shortly before his death in 2007.

In establishing the scholarship for students in the new oil and gas technology program, Mrs. Robeson said she could not imagine a more fitting way to honor Freddie’s memory. The couple had already demonstrated their commitment to the importance of education with prior scholarship donations to the NCTC Foundation.

When the local eye doctor for whom she worked retired in 1975, Mrs. Robeson started taking courses at what was then known as Cooke County College. She went on to earn both undergraduate and graduate degrees in nursing at Texas Woman’s University.

Working as an RN at hospitals in Texas and Oklahoma City, she began teaching at Oklahoma State University’s associate degree nursing program in 1988. When she and Freddie returned to Texas, Mrs. Robeson came to NCTC as a first-semester nursing instructor, eventually moving up to nursing program director before moving to Bowie to open the NCTC Bowie Campus in 2000.

She returned to the Gainesville Campus as dean of applied sciences and was named vice president of instruction about two years prior to her retirement to care for her ill husband.

“Freddie was very excited about the possibility of NCTC offering this new oil and gas program,” she said. “And, as a longtime resident of Montague County who owned and managed oilfield-related businesses serving this area, he would have been so proud and gratified to see it becoming a reality here at the NCTC Bowie Campus.”

Mrs. Robeson added that, as someone who worked in virtually every aspect of the oil business, Freddie was well aware of the tremendous impact being exerted on the industry by technology, as is illustrated by the new methods being employed to extract natural gas from the vast Barnett Shale field.

“And because of that, he knew that technology-based education and training is becoming essential to landing a good job and improving prospects for advancement” she said. “Freddie would be so pleased to know that this scholarship will help students take advantage of the wonderful new opportunities that now exist in this area.”

Persons wishing to honor Freddie Robeson’s memory may make additional contributions to this scholarship fund. Contact Debbie Sharp, vice president of advancement, at 940-668-4213 or by email: dsharp@nctc.edu.

For more information about the oil and gas production technology program at NCTC, go online to http://www.nctc.edu/Oil&Gas/ or contact the program coordinator, Billy Giles at 940-872-4002 or by email: bgiles@nctc.edu.

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