College of Engineering and Physical Sciences
Dean's Office
EERB 401
1000 E. University Ave.
Laramie, WY 82071
Phone: (307) 766-4253
Email: enginfo@uwyo.edu
B.S. Petroleum Engineering, University of Wyoming 1965
M.S. Petroleum Engineering, University of Wyoming 1968
M.S. (MBA) Management Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1988
Professional Engineer
Dick obtained his bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering from the University of Wyoming in 1965 and then his masters in 1968. He started his career with Skelly Oil Company (now Texaco) and Gulf Oil Corporation (now Chevron), where he accepted increasing positions of responsibility. He was then recruited by Roy M. Huffington’s, Huffco Indonesia Inc. where he started as a drilling engineer and after rising through the ranks, he became acting President of Huffco’s large scale effort to explore, produce, liquefy and transport Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) from the island of Kalimantan to end users in East Asia.
Returning to Houston, he became Executive Vice President and co-founded MetFuel, Inc. This company led the drilling of 500 coal-bed methane wells in the Black Warrior Basin of Alabama. Dick then founded and served as the CEO and largest shareholder of Antara Resources, Inc. Under his leadership, Antara acquired and developed over 65 billion cubic feet of natural gas reserves in the Gulf Coast and Piceance Basin and later sold to Calpine Corporation.
In 2000, he founded Wapiti Energy, LLC and is the CEO. Wapiti Energy, LLC is a privately held oil and gas company. He is also CEO of Bayou Well Holdings which controls a large portion of Ranger Energy Services where he is a director of the NYSE company.
Dick has over fifty-five years of engineering, management, and entrepreneurial experience in domestic and international positions within the oil and natural gas industries. His experience spans U.S. land and offshore engineering and management to a large independent in Indonesia where he led the developing, producing and processing natural gas into LNG with a workforce of thousands from one of the largest LNG facilities in the world. This facility delivered gas to utilities in Japan and Korea.
Dick served on the Wyoming Governors Energy, Engineering, Stem Integration Task Force, two terms on the CEPS National Advisory Board, the University of Wyoming Foundation Board of Directors and received UW Distinguished Alumnus in 2017.
Dick and his wife Judy have been married over 55 years, have four children and spend their time between Houston and Dubois/Jackson, Wyoming.
College of Engineering and Physical Sciences
Dean's Office
EERB 401
1000 E. University Ave.
Laramie, WY 82071
Phone: (307) 766-4253
Email: enginfo@uwyo.edu