1969

Robert L. Nance, 71, senior vice president of St. Mary Land & Exploration Co. and CEO of subsidiary Nance Petroleum Corp., will retire in early 2008. In 1969 he founded Robert L. Nance and Associates in Billings, MT, the predecessor of Nance Petroleum. His company and St. Mary formed a partnership in 1991 to explore the Williston Basin, and eight years later Nance Petroleum became a St. Mary subsidiary. Nance was honored with the Wildcatter Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999 by the Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States, the Chief Roughneck Award in 2002 by the Independent Petroleum Association of America and membership in the Rocky Mountain Oil and Gas Hall of Fame in 2004. Mark D. Mueller, vice president and general manager of Calgary-based Samson Exploration Ltd., will succeed Nance as regional manager of the Rocky Mountain region effective Nov. 5.