Jimmy Wilson and Morgan Cole | Seguin and Odessa, TX
Some 300 miles apart, father and son are working hard on different sides of H&P. Morgan Cole is a Strategic Account Manager in Odessa, Texas and Jimmy Wilson is a Lead Investigator in Seguin, Texas.
“We came into each other’s lives when Morgan was only three months old,” Jimmy said. “It’s funny because I’ve never looked upon him as being a stepson because I helped raise him.”
Morgan was born and raised in Corpus Christi before leaving for college where he attended school in Houston and Kingsville. Jimmy had started at H&P about two years prior to his son joining the ranks while he was in college. Jimmy said Morgan was always a very hands-on kid and decided to pursue mechanical engineering in college.
“Jimmy got me roped in and I applied to work at our former Alice office,” Morgan said. “I worked as a yard hand to start, went out as a floorhand for one long summer, then I went to Tulsa for an internship and worked at the FlexRig Machinery Center.”
Morgan signed on to intern for a couple of summers and when he was getting ready to graduate, he found he had enjoyed his time at H&P as an intern and made the leap. His first role was working on a rig in North Dakota, and then had roles in West Texas, South Texas and offshore in the Gulf of Mexico.
Jimmy added that it has been a great experience to work at the same company as his son. “It has been awesome to hear his peers speak highly of him,” Jimmy said. “It warms your heart as a father. It makes your heart smile.”
Jimmy and Morgan share more than careers at the same company. They are both avid fishermen. Morgan admits that it is harder now to go on those fishing trips while being out in West Texas. During a fishing trip when Morgan was 11 years old, they went out to catch flounder by Rockport at about 1 a.m.
“My dad gets out to move the truck, so his buddy and I are in the water,” Morgan said. “His buddy points out an alligator which was about 12 feet from us. When he looked back at me, I was already up on the shore; I took off and my dad was just laughing.”
Jimmy added that fishing trips are harder to accomplish nowadays with the distance, but they still get together for family-oriented events now that grandchildren are in the picture.
Barry Barnett and Brooklynn Biddick | Oklahoma City and Tulsa, OK
The Barnett family has a legacy of working at H&P that spans four generations now. Brooklynn Biddick grew up moving around the states for Barry Barnett’s career at H&P. She was familiar enough with the company that when it came time to start applying for jobs H&P was on her radar.
“When I was little I didn’t really like the moving but once I got older and paid attention I realized he must be working for a good company if he’s going to move for the company,” Brooklynn said. “When I decided to go into business in college it did cross my mind that H&P would be a good company to work for.”
Barry is a business operations senior manager for our North region and Brooklynn is a contract coordinator in Tulsa. The two don’t work on the same team but still work closely together.
“I’ll send out contracts for the North operations and he’ll be one of the reviewers and gives me feedback,” she said. “I had to learn a lot for this position so having his help has been really cool and useful.”
The family’s legacy at H&P started with Barry’s grandfather William Barnett in the 1940s. William took a job with H&P in West Texas in 1948 during the Texas oil boom. He worked in Texas and Oklahoma as a roughneck, driller and rig manager. Barry’s father Kenneth grew up in the oilfield. He worked his way from roughneck to driller to rig manager. Then in 1970 he transitioned to international operations and worked in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Paraguay and Bolivia.
Altogether, with Barry’s additional time working as a roughneck on rigs as a summer job while attending college, the family has almost 90 years of career experience at H&P. William served 33 years, Kenneth served 27 years, Barry finished his 27th year on the corporate side at the company and Brooklynn started in December of 2020.
Outside of work, Barry and Brooklynn enjoy hunting, watching OU football and playing with all their boxer dogs together.
Clay and Clyde Hebert | Odessa and Houston, TX
Clay Hebert, Regional Director of H&P’s West Region operations, experienced a shift in his life after his father, Clyde, started working at H&P when Clay was eight years old. Clay celebrated his 10-year anniversary with the company in May. Clay said that a big reason he wanted to work for H&P had to do with the legacies other families have created at the company.
“H&P is one of those companies where you see generations of families work here,” Clay said. “I’m only a second-generation but there are families where three or four generations of members have worked here. That was something that really attracted me to working at H&P.”
“My dad had worked for several other contractors before 1998,” Clay said. “Before 1998 my dad was gone all the time then that year then suddenly, he was home all the time. Family always came first at H&P. He never missed anything from that year forward whether it was a football game or track meet.”
Clyde had several job titles while at H&P but in the end, he was the Marketing Manager. He worked for H&P for 18 years and then retired in 2016.
“It was good to have a leadership perspective while I was in the infancy of my career,” Clay said. “I was able to talk to him about the why behind why the company was doing something as opposed to kind of nudging your boss per se. He (Clyde) was very good about giving me perspective. On the other side, he was a great sounding board to be transparent with.”
Clyde said is proud of the strides Clay has continued to make at H&P.
“I’m very proud of that young man,” Clyde said. “I think he has done more in the company than I did. In my opinion, he was kind of marked for it because he is smart and went to Rice (University) and used that ability to work with people at H&P which was always the best part of H&P, the people.”
Clyde has enjoyed time with his son in retirement outside Clay’s work schedule and despite his location in West Texas while he lives in Houston. Clay added that they purchased a ranch together and they try to meet up there about every other weekend.
“We hunt and we fish as well as meet at our little ranch out by Castell,” Clyde said. “We just enjoy coming out here together. It’s about halfway for both of us to meet up.”