A group of people who retired in the last few year from the oil industry meet once a month (in non-COVID times). Many of them started their careers at a time when Wally was a force in the Calgary oil patch and well-known for his knowledge, expertise and his ability to put together significant deals. He was a model that many looked up to and a man who had a great influence on our careers. Many of these people sent me their favorite memories of Wally. They also join me in celebrating a life well lived and in sending our condolences to the family. Best regards, Sandy Crawford
A few of the stories are included below:
Wally was Exploration Manager -Western Canada for Gulf Canada when a number of us were just getting started in the business. He was quite a character with his stogie stuck in the corner of his mouth during land sale meetings. He certainly had a good sense of humour – as long as you didn’t mess with him. He held all of us to the same high standard that he always exhibited.
We used to cram all the G&G, land and engineering information for a particular parcel for a land sale onto a 8.5" X 14” piece of paper called a Wallyplat so Wally would have the info handy. New hires would always ask “What the heck is a Wallyplat?” and the answer would always start with “Well, its not an Australian marsupial’.
One of my favourite memories of Wally was as our Calgary exploration team’s hockey coach in a Stettler/Nevis tournament.
He watched in some bemusement as his starting line was totally swamped by the Nevis behemoths when the first puck dropped - resulting in the first goal against less than 10 seconds in. His cautiously understated comment (with sky humour and the ready stogie at the side of his mouth) - “I.. I.. I .. think we need to consider a line change....”
I have a couple Wally quotes that I’ll never forget...the first was his description of where to look for Leduc pinnacles (on the NE/windward platform promontories of major build-ups, like Sturgeon or Simonnete)....Wally said (with his cute little stutter) “ah...ah...look for those pinnacles up there, they forget to take the corner around the reef, and end up in front!”....the second quote was an example of the outrageous demands he would make of the land men...in a meeting he once told Blair Towell how to respond to an obnoxious partner...”Blair, tell them ‘…. you’, nasty letter to follow!”....
Good, memorable guy!
• I remember being at that meeting with Wally and Blair. After Wally left the room, Blair said "sure, its easy for him to say but I'm the one that has to write the letter!" Lot's of good memories of Wally.
I certainly remember Wally and his good humour! He was one of the more affable members of the cast of interesting characters in upper management I experienced as a student Co-op geology student In early 1977. The unlit cigar was a trademark!
Wally was a great guy, great leader and great mentor. If you didn’t have a Wally Gacek cigar burn on your geology map then you really never made it a Gulf!
