More on My Dad - Donald P Golden, Sr

My dad was an interesting guy. After WWII and just after I was born he took a job as a machinist with the Magnolia Refinery in Beaumont. The refinery was a subsidiary of SOCONY thru the 40’s and 50’s and became a Mobil refinery in the late 50s.

As an hourly tradesman my dad faced the ‘no degree’ stigma common to oil companies.

That limited his promotion potential. Using the GI bill he entered Lamar Tech’s night school to work on a degree in engineering. {At some point Lamar was upgraded to a University.)

I recall dad’s studying in the laundry room. I think he did ok on the subjects that he realized applied directly to engineering, the math and science courses, but the soft subjects frustrated him. History, literature, English all took a lot of time and seemed to him not to be advancing him toward his job goals.