Daniel Markel:  

After graduating from North Hills in 1977, I went to West Virginia University and received a bachelors in mechanical engineering. It was a fun four years in Morgantown with never a dull moment. I'll never forget the weekend trips in the mountains at Coopers Rock State Park and the swimming trips with a gang of friends at Cheat Lake. The football games at Old Mountaineer Field were a blast even though the Mountaineers had sub par records from 1977 through 1979. In 1980 they opened the new football stadium. It was an impressive facility, but it lacked the intimacy and the unity of the student body since the student seating was in multiple levels. I still follow the Mountaineers and I'm elated they are now in the Big 12 and I plan to attend their away games in Texas. As a whole, I would have to say that meeting people from different parts of the country as well as different parts of the world is what I'll remember best about this 4 years in college. After graduating from WVU in 1981, I moved to Houston, TX and got a job in research and development in the oil industry working for Dresser Atlas, a division of Dresser Industries. In 1984 I went on a six week assignment in the United Arab Emirates - mainly in Dubai, before it boomed into a world-class city. That's a trip I'll never forget! In 1988 I changed jobs and began working for Schlumberger in a similar capacity in the develop of oilfield tools. The Schlumberger facility is located in Rosharon, Texas - about 40 miles south of Houston and about 30 miles from the Gulf of Mexico. Shortly after being hired by Schlumberger, I at...Expand for more