Stephen A. Holditch, professor emeritus in the Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering at Texas A&M University, was one of 12 Texas A&M former students who were recognized as Distinguished Alumni for their lifetimes of service. All 12 received the honor at the Association of Former Students’ Distinguished Alumni Gala on Oct. 10. In addition, 11 of the 2014 recipients were recognized in front of a record crowd at Kyle Field during Texas A&M football game against Ole Miss.
Since the inception of the award in 1962, only 237 of Texas A&M’s 410,000 former students have been recognized with the Distinguished Alumnus Award, the highest honor bestowed upon a former student of Texas A&M University. Awarded jointly by Texas A&M and The Association of Former Students, this award recognizes those Aggies who have achieved excellence in their chosen professions and made meaningful contributions to Texas A&M and their local communities.
“Texas A&M is one of the nation’s great, public land-grant institutions in large part because of the contributions these outstanding Aggies have made to their professions, their communities and their alma mater,” said Texas A&M Interim President Dr. Mark Hussey '79.
Holditch, with a career spanning more than 39 years, is a perfect example of an outstanding Aggie.
A member of the Corps of Cadets and Ross Volunteers, he received his bachelor's, master's and Ph.D. from Texas A&M, all in petroleum engineering. He began working on his Ph.D. while on leave from Shell Oil Co. in January 1974. While his intent was to rejoin Shell after earning his degree, Holditch was offered a position as an assistant professor at Texas A&M, which he accepted.
The next year, Holditch started a consulting firm, S.A. Holditch and Associates Inc., which grew to 70 employees in five offices and had a worldwide reputation for being able to solve the most difficult petroleum engineering problems. The company thrived in the up and down oil and gas business environment of the 1980s and 1990s. Schlumberger acquired the company in 1997 and adopted the S.A. Holditch and Associates culture in the elements of Schlumberger that were focused on reservoir analysis.
He was a Schlumberger Fellow from 1999 to 2004, the highest rung on Schlumberger's technical career ladder. At the time, there were only nine fellows out of more than 10,000 professional employees.
Holditch was elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in 1995, the highest professional honor for an engineer. Out of the millions of practicing engineers in the United States, there are fewer than 2,000 members of the NAE.
In 2002, he was president of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), a global organization with over 70,000 members. In total, he spent six years on the SPE board of directors as vice president of finance for three years and in the presidential rotation for three more. Holditch traveled the globe for six years for SPE, giving speeches and representing oil and gas technology.
Holditch "retired" from Schlumberger in 2004 to return to Texas A&M as the head of the Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering, a position he held until January 2012. During Holditch's tenure, the number of students in the department more than doubled.
In January 2011, Holditch became the director of the Texas A&M Energy Institute (EI). The institute's staff consisted of five employees, none of whom knew him very well. That changed quickly, as Holditch's many years of experience in the academic world and in the fast-paced, highly competitive oil and gas industry made him the ideal leader for an entity that had to learn how to successfully bring together both sides in order to develop and globally deploy the brilliant energy research being conducted at Texas A&M. He retired from Texas A&M in January 2013.
Holditch has received the top three technical awards given by SPE — the Anthony F. Lucas Technical Leadership Gold Medal, the John Franklin Carll Distinguished Professional Award, and the Lester C. Uren Technical Excellence Award. He was elected an SPE Honorary Member in 2006, the highest honor that SPE presents to an individual and is limited to 0.1 percent of the SPE membership. This status is awarded to individuals who have given outstanding service to SPE or who have demonstrated distinguished scientific or engineering achievements in the fields within the technical scope of SPE.
He was recognized for his lifetime contributions to hydraulic fracturing technologies with the 2014 Legends of Hydraulic Fracturing Award during the SPE Hydraulic Fracturing Technology Conference.
Mark W. Albers '79, senior vice president of the ExxonMobil Corp., said, "Steve Holditch has made an enormous contribution to the industry. He has been a tireless champion of the petroleum engineering department, its students and the university. He has also consistently provided a credible voice to governments on issues important to the industry."
He and his wife, Ann, have funded multiple scholarships in petroleum engineering, as well as a Sul Ross Scholarship. They are Endowed Century Club donors to The Association of Former Students and their many gifts to the 12th Man Foundation and Texas A&M Foundation have earned them recognition as Eppright Distinguished Donors and members of the Legacy Society. Holditch has been honored as a member of the Petroleum Engineering Academy of Distinguished Graduates and as an Outstanding Alumnus of the Dwight Look College of Engineering.