Desk and Derrick Educators
Petroleum industry women convened in 1952 at the Shamrock Hotel in Houston.
Since its founding a few years after World War II, a national association of women in the petroleum business has “ebbed and flowed with the tides of the energy and allied industries.”
The organization began when a secretary at Humble Oil & Refining Company organized a 1949 meeting in New Orleans. Three years later, representatives from other cities gathered there to establish the Association of Desk and Derrick Clubs (ADDC) of North America.
Secretaries in 1941 founded the first Desk and Derrick Club in New Orleans.
Articles of association were signed on July 23, 1951, by the president of the New Orleans club and the presidents of clubs founded in Jackson, Mississippi, Los Angeles, California, and Houston, Texas. The newly organized group of businesswomen began promoting energy education in the United States and Canada.
Greater Knowledge
“Greater Knowledge — Greater Service” became the ADDC motto of women working primarily as secretaries in the oil and natural gas industry. Many began organizing clubs in dozens of other oil-producing states.
ADDC got its start thanks to the Humble Oil secretary, who established the first club in New Orleans. A company secretary, Inez Awty (later Schaeffer), frustrated from writing reports about things she knew little about, “believed women working for oil companies wanted to see and know more about a derrick and other aspects of the industry,” noted a 2012 article in the Permian Basin Petroleum Association’s PB Oil & Gas.
Awty worked for Humble Oil & Refining Company, founded in 1911, thanks to a giant oilfield discovery at Humble, Texas, four years after the famous 1901 Spindletop gusher. Production from the Humble field exceeded the total for Spindletop by 1946.
By 1951, there were 1,500 Desk and Derrick members in the United States and Canada. Photo courtesy Permian Basin Petroleum Association.
“Miss Awty thought if men in the oil industry could be organized and know other men outside their own company, then the women could do likewise,” the Midland Reporter-Telegram reported in 1951.
The charter clubs dedicated themselves to “the education and professional development of individuals employed in or affiliated with the petroleum, energy and allied industries and to educate the general public about these industries.”
The PB Oil & Gas article added that in April 1957, the club’s guest speakers included a young Midlander named George H.W. Bush, who reviewed offshore drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico.
“Bit of Fun”
Educating youth about the earth sciences and how the modern petroleum industry works is part of the Desk and Derrick mission. In 1957, the organization’s members adopted a motto, “Greater Knowledge — Greater Service.”
Since 2004, the group has published (in English and Spanish) “Bit of Fun with PetroMolly and PetroMack,” an energy activity book designed for third and fourth graders.
In 1982, ADDC established The Desk and Derrick Educational Trust, “for the purpose of awarding scholarships to students pursuing a degree in a major field of study related to the petroleum, energy, or allied industries, with the objective of obtaining full-time employment in the industry.”
In addition, ADDC began to assist members in developing new educational projects and programs.
In 2018, about 1,200 women and men employed in or affiliated with the energy and allied industries comprised 48 clubs in seven regions. Membership numbers fluctuate in close relation to the state of the oil and gas industry — and oil prices.
ADDC has since continued to promote its energy education mission using a variety of programs, including seminars, field trips, and individual clubs hosting the annual national convention.
“Thousands of hours of education have been provided for members through monthly programs on the many facets of this industry and given by speakers ranging from company CEOs to oil-well-fire fighters.”
ADDC Milestones
1949 – The first club is founded in New Orleans by Inez Awty Schaeffer.
July 23, 1951 – Articles of association are signed by presidents of the clubs founded earlier in New Orleans, Los Angeles, Houston and Jackson, Mississippi.
December 1-2, 1951 – First Board of Directors meeting in New Orleans.
ADDC published its first “Bit of Fun” Energy Activity Book in 2004.
1952 – A newsletter is published (today’s The Desk and Derrick Journal) after Josephine Nolen of Odessa, Texas, wins a contest for its name: The Oil and Gal Journal.
1952 – The first convention is held at the Shamrock Hotel in Houston, led by the first association president, Lee Wilson Hoover. Forty member clubs are represented by almost 1,000 registrants. The Shamrock Hotel became the largest in the United States at the time. Independent producer Glenn H. “Diamond Glenn” McCarthy spent $21 million to build it.
1957 – “Greater Knowledge — Greater Service” is adopted as a motto.
1977 – “of North America” is deleted from the association’s name and the acronym ADDC becomes common usage.
1982 – ADDC established The Desk and Derrick Educational Trust for awarding scholarships to students pursuing a degree in a major field of study related to the petroleum, energy, or allied industries.
1987 – Foundation is established, and the first issue of The Desk and Derrick Journal published, replacing the Oil and Gal Journal.
1988 – Delegates at the annual convention approve equitable membership in the association, opening membership to men.
1996 – The first association website goes online in September.
2001 – Celebration of the association’s 50th anniversary year.
2004 – ADDC publishes its first “Bit of Fun” energy activity book.
2010 – Website is improved.
2025 Regions & Clubs
The 73rd annual ADDC Convention and Education Conference, is planned for September 16 – 21 at the Estancia del Norte in San Antonio, Texas. The 2024 gathering took place in Dallas.
Map of Association of Desk & Derrick Clubs courtesy ADDC.org.
Central Region Clubs: Graham, Great Bend, Liberal, Lone Star Club of Dallas, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Wichita, and Wichita Falls.
Northeast Region Clubs: Three Rivers, Tri-State, and Tuscarawas Valley.
Southeast Region Clubs: Baton Rouge, Lafayette, New Orleans, Red River, San Antonio, Victoria, and Westbank.
West Region Clubs: Abilene, Amarillo, Artesia, Farmington, Grande Prairie, Midland, Pampa, and Roswell.
Oil Patch Field Trips
The association’s conventions often have included field trips to onshore and offshore drilling platforms, refineries, drill-bit manufacturing plants, pipeline facilities, and other petroleum industry locations.
During the 62nd convention in 2013 at Charleston, West Virginia, coordinator Melinda Johnson managed a theme of “Autumn in Appalachia.” The local club included 95 oil and natural gas companies. The convention program offered seminars — and the choice of five day-long field trips.
Among the 62nd convention seminars were Five Traits of Professionalism; Intro to Petroleum Engineering; Hot Oil and Gas Plays in the Appalachian Basin; Formulas and More — Excel Training; and Leadership and Effective Communication.
Further, on one of the field trips, service company representatives from Nabors Services provided a seminar and demonstration on fracturing treatments in the Marcellus Shale. Convention attendees learned the steps in performing a hydraulic fracturing treatment and the difference between how a conventional reservoir and an unconventional reservoir is fractured.
Another field trip visited a Halliburton oilfield service yard for education on coil tubing — with a “snubbing” unit demonstration. Still another trip toured a Baker Hughes center in Clarksburg, where visitors learned about directional drilling and viewed downhole motors, rotary steerable subs, and different kinds of drill bits.
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The American Oil & Gas Historical Society (AOGHS) preserves U.S. petroleum history. Please become an AOGHS annual supporter and help maintain this energy education website and expand historical research. For more information, contact bawells@aoghs.org. © 2025 Bruce A. Wells.
Citation Information – Article Title: “Desk and Derrick Educators.” Author: AOGHS.ORG Editors. Website Name: American Oil & Gas Historical Society. URL: https://aoghs.org/energy-education-resources/desk-derrick-educators. Last Updated: July 20, 2025. Original Published Date: July 21, 2014.
