Thomas E. Jorden, Cimarex's Chief Executive Officer and President, spoke to his fellow employees:

It is with deep sadness that I announce to you that Mick Merelli, our Chairman and founder, passed away yesterday afternoon after a long illness. He was 76 years old.

How can I begin to describe the debt that we at Cimarex owe to Mick Merelli? It was his leadership, vision, and discipline that propelled Cimarex from an organization of a handful of people to the company we are today. Mick challenged all of us to do our best, to objectively measure our results, and to use those objective measurements to make better decisions. Mick encouraged us to engage one another in healthy and heated debate. He believed that real progress was, by its very nature, uncomfortable. Mick taught us to choose progress over comfort.

Mick was loyal to his family, friends, and colleagues. He loved Cimarex and vested his life and dreams in seeing it grow and prosper. Mick’s vision lay in building a company of enduring value, one whose legacy would outlast him. He was never interested in short term gains or riches. He believed that true value withstood the test of time. Of all that Mick accomplished in his legendary career, he was most proud of Cimarex and the future that lay before us.

Mick’s warmth and personal style deeply touched the lives of hundreds of people within our organization and across our industry. I realize that many of you at Cimarex never had the opportunity to know Mick well. Do yourself a favor. Find someone who did know Mick and ask them to tell you about him. You will hear about a man that was warm and humble, a man that loved to recount stories of successes and failures gathered throughout his career. You will hear about a man who picked people carefully, then challenged them to accomplish things that they never thought themselves capable of. You will hear about a man who loved life, who loved to laugh at himself, who was never comfortable in the limelight. You will hear about a man who was more at home working a backhoe than he was working a cocktail party. Mick had no patience for things that didn’t count. He had too much to do.

The greatest way for us to honor the tremendous gifts that Mick gave to us is to continue to grow Cimarex and to keep it healthy in these turbulent times. Mick placed tremendous trust in the many employees throughout this organization that share a sense of pride and ownership in Cimarex. In so doing, he made us more trustworthy.

God Bless Mick Merelli and God Bless the America that allowed a man like Mick to thrive and prosper.