For more than 80 years, geologist William S. Marshall’s life has paralleled that of his family oil and gas company, Marshall & Winston Inc. His father, Samuel Sr., co-founded the company in 1928, the year before Bill was born.

In 1978, when the company celebrated its 50th anniversary and owned leases in 16 states, oil sold for less than $9 a barrel—until the Iranian revolution pushed it to more than $12, an astonishing price.

Today’s robust oil prices have revived the Permian Basin, site of the firm’s home base in Midland. Marshall & Winston participates in roughly 100 wells a year and is currently drilling the Abo play and the Avalon-Bone Spring, also referred to as the Leonard shale.

Originally a small royalty company, under Bill Marshall the E&P became a substantial independent that takes interests in many other companies’ prospects, and generates many of its own, often holding 100%. The company discovered, among other finds, these Texas fields: the Blackard-Clinta complex in Borden County, the Lonesome Dove II in Concho County, and a significant stepout and enlargement of the South Francis Hill gas field in Edwards County.

Marshall & Winston expanded its reach over time and today produces not only in Texas and New Mexico, but in North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Alabama and Oklahoma as well. In January 2010, Marshall became chairman emeritus.

Born in Los Angeles in 1928, Marshall moved with his family to Roswell, New Mexico, in 1938 and graduated from the New Mexico Military Institute in 1947. He received a geology degree from Cornell University in 1951 and a master’s in geology from Columbia University in 1954.

Then, it was time to go back to the Permian Basin. He was employed by Schermerhorn Oil Corp. in Hobbs, New Mexico, and Midland, from 1954 to 1956. But in 1958, at age 29, he joined his father’s firm, Marshall & Winston, becoming president and chief executive officer in 1967 upon his father’s death. Marshall served as president and chief executive officer for 32 years, until May 1999, when he was named chairman and CEO, positions he held until December 2009.

Long active in local organizations, Marshall served, at one time or another, as president of the boards of the Midland College Foundation, the Petroleum Club of Midland, and as a trustee of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) Foundation. He was also a founding director of Texas Commerce Bank, Midland. He was inducted into the Permian Basin Petroleum Museum Hall of Fame in April 2007.

A 2005 book, Marshall & Winston: 75 Years in the Oil Industry, described the history of the company. At that time it had interests in several hundred wells. Today, it has 12 new wells drilling.

Investor: Do you pursue any shale gas?

Marshall We’re not involved, because I mistakenly was too conservative about it. I thought the Barnett was going to be a fluke. But I do think natural gas is a very desirable fuel, and we’re going to need more of it.

Investor: What’s more exciting now?

Marshall: We are currently drilling our fifth well in the lower Abo play in New Mexico and are participating in the Avalon and Yeso plays in New Mexico. We have some pretty good-looking acreage in New Mexico. It is a problem getting a rig. Next year we hope to drill our first well in the Colorado Niobrara—we have some acreage there.

But the most exciting oil play I’ve ever seen is the Bakken play in the Williston Basin.

Investor: Why do you say that?

Marshall: Those wells are just super. There may be thousands of them. Horizontal drilling and multistage fracs have made oil fields out of stuff that had been completely overlooked. The Permian Basin is also going to greatly benefit from the new drilling and completion technology.

Right now, we have 12 active locations that we get a morning report on. Three wells are in North Dakota, nine are in the Permian Basin, and 11 are going horizontal. Nowadays, if someone brings you a well proposal and it’s not horizontal, you want to know why.

Investor: You’ve worked the Williston Basin since the 1950s.

Marshall: Yes, my wife Sue and I lived up there for two years and I myself spent five consecutive Christmas Eves up there. But we have always done well in North Dakota. We drilled our first well there in 1958, bringing in Portal Field, which grew to have 14 wells.

Investor: Tell us about Lonesome Dove II Field.

Marshall: We are waterflooding it now. It was brought to us in 1989 by a geologist named David Powers. His prospect was supposed to be a three-well structure, an anticline, but it turned out to be a 52-well, huge stratigraphic trap. That was the best thing we ever drilled. In this business, you better have two things—a little bit of courage, and some luck. You need some financing to be sure. Ours is almost always internally financed.

Investor: What words of wisdom did your father leave with you?

Marshall: The main thing I remember is, “You’ll get another opportunity next month or in six months. So don’t get carried away with your failures or your successes.” Nowadays the temptation is to go lease the whole world and go overboard like there is no tomorrow, so my job is to keep the brakes on a little bit.

—Leslie Haines