Texas Tech University

Distinguished Engineer Citations

                 
Distinguished Engineer Photo: John W. Sheehan, Ph.D.
John W. Sheehan, Ph.D.

John W. Sheehan, Ph.D.

Distinguished Engineer

1974

Degree

Chemical Engineering – 1938

 

Citation

At Time of Nomination in 1974

John W. Sheehan, born in 1917, in Hermleigh, Texas, received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering in 1938 and M.S. in 1940 from Texas Tech University; and in 1947 was awarded the Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering by the University of Texas at Austin. Then he joined Shell Oil Company as a senior technologist at its Houston refinery.

In 1952, he became assistant manager of Shell’s gas department and in 1954 was transferred as senior technologist to its Manufacturing Technological Department in New York. Named chief technologist at its Wood River Refinery in Illinois, he was appointed two years later to be refinery superintendent at Norco, Louisiana. Then he returned to the Wood River Refinery as superintendent and in 1964 was awarded the responsibility of manager of Shell refineries at Odessa, Texas and at Ciniza, New Mexico.

After advancing in 1965 to the managership of the refinery at Martinez, California, Mr. Sheehan became general manager of refinery expansion in 1967, with headquarters in New York, and the following year was appointed general manager of refineries. In 1970, he returned to Texas as Shell’s vice president of manufacturing in Houston, and then was assigned responsibility for all manufacturing facilities of Shell Oil and Shell Chemical Companies.

He has worked with Houston’s United Way, and is a member of the Engineering Foundation Advisory Council of the University of Texas at Austin.

Texas Tech University cites John W. Sheehan as: DISTINGUISHED ENGINEER.

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