Barbara Shook:
CLASS OF 1966
Bryan Adams High SchoolClass of 1966
Dallas, TX
University of Houston - Central CampusClass of 1971
Houston, TX
Southwest Texas State University - CommunicationClass of 1971
San marcos, TX
Bellaire High SchoolClass of 1966
Bellaire, TX
Barbara's Story
Life
If anyone had told me I would become an international energy journalist back in high school, I never would have believed it. Nevertheless, the Lord has taken me on many exciting journeys around the world, to places I once knew solely from geographpy books, and I am still am thrilled about what I am doing. Something exciting happens everyday. I travel extensively in both North America and internationally and have met some incredible people. Antarctica and Australia are the only continents I have not yet visited! I also do television and radio commentary on the oil and gas industry in addition to writing for our 15 publications.
Somehow I managed to keep the same husband for 47 years before he passed away on Sept. 26, 2016. Our family included a daughter and a son. Our daughter, Robyn, is an insurance agent and has given us a granddaughter, Stoney, who is a senior in high school. Our son, Dan, graduated from the University of Texas and is a mechanical engineer. He works for Fluor in Sugar Land. He married another engineer whom he met at work, Crusita Vazquez, who is from Venezuela. They have two boys, Nicholas and David.
I plan to work at my present job for another year or more until I'm 70 and think of something better to do. I have a way to go in becoming accustomed to being single again.
My husband retired from the auto parts business after a stroke in 2004 and does volunteer work with AARP. We belong to the Lutheran Church, where I teach Sunday School, along with our daughter. We also are active in the local Democratic party and have served as election judges for the past 20 years. The stories we could tell you about that!
My job keeps me so busy that I haven't developed any real hobbies, but that is fine. If I die at my computer after having written the expose of my career, that will be a fitting conclusion to a life and adventure that has been far beyond the most inventive imagination of a girl who grew up in a working-class neighborhood in northeast Dallas.
We had planned to move to Calgary, Alberta, but my husband suffered a stroke, delaying our relocation. He is recovering, but much more slowly than we had hoped. I intended to open an office for my company there and still hope to do that. The area is beautiful, and after almost 50 years of living in the Houston area, I am ready for a colder, drier climate and some mountains in the background. Since my father was born there, I also have dual citizenship. That is a bonus in many ways, especially since I travel to parts of the world where a US ...Expand for more
passport can be dangerous to display.
School
We lived in Dallas until the middle of my junior year in high school. All the schools I attended there were in the White Rock area - Casa View and Martha Turner Reilly elementary, Hill Jr. High and Bryan Adams High School. Our family moved to Houston in 1964 when my father changed jobs. I graduated from Bellaire High School in 1966 and worked a year before attending Southwest Texas State.
College
I attended Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos, now Texas State, for two years until I married. While there I worked on the student newspaper and participated in student government. My most memorable friendship was with an English professor with whom I remained in contact until her death in 2003 at the age of 91. The literary society she sponsored still meets annually in her honor. That is how much influence Dr. Young had on us. After transferring to the University of Houston, I continued to work on the university newspaper. I graduated in August 1971.
Workplace
My first job was editing the employee publications at Houston Natural Gas, an Enron predecessor. I later handled a full slate of media, financial, and public relations tasks, but my greatest training came from the old fellows in the field who taught me how gas pipelines worked and how oil and gas wells were drilled. The next two jobs were just time-passers until I got into my true profession, energy journalism. My longest tenures were at the Houston Chronicle, almost 9 years, and Energy Intelligence Group, where I have been since 1996. I have covered all aspects of the oil and gas business, including attending OPEC meetings and following the Enron crash. For the past few years, global liquefied natural gas and the developing North American gas surplus have been my primary projects, but my position allows me the latitude to pursue whatever strikes my fancy - at least most of the time. My career has been one adventure after another, hardly the future anticipated by girls who grew up on Flamingo Lane! My children learned world geography by following my travels. In the past year alone, I traveled to Canada twice, to London, Dubai, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Spain and Ecuador. Unfortunately, my husband can no longer travel with me because of his stroke-related impairments. Yes, I made Gold Elite on United/Continental Airlines! When people asked me when I plan to retire, I tell them, I don't. If I die at my computer after filing an expose on Exxon Mobil or Saudi Aramco's natural gas crisis, I will die happy.
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