Texas Tech University

Distinguished Engineer Citations

                 
Distinguished Engineer Photo: F. Max Merrell
F. Max Merrell

F. Max Merrell

Distinguished Engineer

1992

Degree

Chemical Engineering – 1957

 

Citation

At Time of Nomination in 1992

Born August 15, 1935, in Carlsbad, New Mexico, F. Max Merrell received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Texas Tech University in 1957.

Mr. Merrell has dedicated his entire career to Mobil Corporation and its world-wide related industries. After graduation from Texas Tech, he began working as an engineer for Mobil’s refinery in Beaumont, Texas. In 1962, he became Development Analyst for the Petrochemicals Division, and in 1966, Complex Controller for the Petrochemicals Division. Mr. Merrell Served as Planning Coordinator for Mobil Chemical Company from 1968 to 1970, when he was promoted to President and Managing Director of Mobil Chimica Italiana in Naples, Italy.

Mr. Merrell was next appointed Vice President for Planning and Operating Services in the Plastics Division of Mobil in Rochester, New York. In 1976, he became Vice President and General Manger, Minerals Group, Phosphorus Division, for Mobil Chemical Company in Richmond, Virginia. Mr. Merrell became Vice President of Operations, Petrochemicals Division in Houston in 1981, responsible for Mobil’s domestic petrochemical businesses along with the supervision of joint chemical ventures in Australia and Japan.

Mr. Merrell guided two other Mobil efforts as Group Vice President of Container Board for the Container Corporation of America in Chicago, Illinois, between 1984–1986, and as President of Saudi Yanbu Petrochemicals Company in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia, 1986–1988. He returned to Richmond in 1988 as President of Mobil Mining and Minerals Company and serves in that capacity today. As President, Mr. Merrell is responsible for all of Mobil’s phosphate business, including mining, production and marketing.

In addition to his busy life as an engineer and executive, Mr. Merrell is a non–resident member of The Florida Council of 100, a group of the top 100 executives in that state. He holds Director’s positions with The Fertilizer Institute, Phosphate Rock Export Association, Potash–Phosphate Institute, and International Fertilizer Industry Association. He is also a Director of the Science Museum of Virginia.

Mr. Merrell and his wife Mary, who also attended Texas Tech, have two daughters, Marge Richters and Mindy Dunn, and two grandchildren. He and Mary have been major scholarship contributors to the Ex–Students Association and the College of Engineering and as such are stewards of the future of this university and the College of Engineering.

It is a distinctive honor to name F. Max Merrell DISTINGUISHED ENGINEER.

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