Dusty Roach aka William R. Roach
Yes, He was born in a dust storm and his uncle dubbed him “Dusty”. His mother vehemently protested the nickname but has been “Dusty” since the day he was born. The only exceptions were when he was in trouble with his parents, teachers or a traffic stop.
He lived most of his life in San Angelo, TX. He attended San Angelo Central High school playing where he played football, upon graduation of high school, on May 31st he went out the next day working floors in the oilfield. Simultaneously, he attended Angelo State University. After five years of college and working on morning tour, he opted for the oilfield as a career. During downturns, he also worked in retail. His father was a banker, and his mother was an English Teacher at SACHS for 40+ years. She was the inspiration for his love of writing.
For the first 30 years in the oilfield, he worked floors to tool-pusher, both domestically and overseas. He worked in Italy on a land rig and in an island off of Borneo, close to Balikpapan. He indicated that was the low point of his oilfield career. He then returned to the stateside and continued in retail and the oilfield, again based on the downturns.
In 2000 he was asked if he would like to go into Oilfield Safety. His response was not appropriate. He was asked as to why he had such a dislike for safety, and his response was, the safety guys didn’t know operations. The VP of the company said, “That’s great, because you do! You’ll start tomorrow.” After numerous certifications, training, combined with operational experience, he began his career in safety. He did so with the proviso that he would pick his safety personnel that had safety certifications and operational experience as well.
It quickly became a passion, as he had seen too many accidents. He eventually became a Director of Safety for a mid-size company, (8 states and 80 field yards) which the safety record was stellar. He retired at the start of covid. At the behest of his lovely bride, she convinced him to return to work, after the pandemic conclusion. Dusty started writing for the PBOG magazine in July of 2020 and has been writing the monthly safety article ever since. He retired a second time this past October. He said it was official this time. Since then, he has started a podcast and has a goal to finish the 4 books that he started (and almost finished two of them).
His love for the Permian Basin Oil & Gas industry, the people along the way and passion for Safety, will not end. Like he always says, “It’s not how many hits you have in baseball that counts, it’s how many times you reach home safely that counts!” Author Unknown
Dusty