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David Lawrence Dineley
David was the chairman of Geology Department at Bristol University when I got my scholarship from the Iraqi Ministry of Oil to do my Ph.D. in Petroleum Geology. I wrote to many British universities looking for admission. The first letter I got was from David saying you're welcome to Bristol to do your study and this what I did. When I entered his office which was filled with books and papers he said I thought you're older than this. I said is this bad he said not really! For me, David was and still the person I needed to be; a mixture of dynamism and humane giant. Immediately I connected to his inner fire and kept running till I finished my degree. Still using some of his cliche with my students, among which: research is divided by T (time), you cannot sit here forever to finish your degree. if so I would better bring the taxi driver parking in front of the university and he would get his Ph.D. in 16 years!
I hope British universities are still capable of giving birth to people like David Dineley. I am so happy to notice that he is still around pushing life forward as he was doing 40 years ago. David am grateful and will be so forever. Bless you!
Douglas HamiltonDouglas was my Ph.D. supervisor in Bristol. Originally from Christchurch, New Zealandvolunteered during the second world war as a pilot and then settled in UK after marryingMargret who was a ground staff at RAF during the war. Decent is the exact word that describes Doug. He helped in every possible way not with the thesis only but with every small details inour life when we settled in Bristol. He even guaranteed me when I rented a TV (yes at that timepeople rent tvs because they were expensive). We stayed in contact after my graduation for a long time and came back to visit him after few years.Douglas work on Bristol channel and his team did a pioneering work in that area although unfortunatelyit remained unpublished.Douglas loved my stories about Iraq and when I brought him a bottle of Iraqi alcohol called Arak which is brewedfrom dates and told him that the Iraqis call this drink (Abu Kalabcha) because when you drink it you feel thatyour are handcuffed, he kept it on the shelf in his room just to show it to his visitors.
Douglas HamiltonDouglas was my Ph.D. supervisor in Bristol. Originally from Christchurch, New Zealandvolunteered during the second world war as a pilot and then settled in UK after marryingMargret who was a ground staff at RAF during the war. Decent is the exact word that describes Doug. He helped in every possible way not with the thesis only but with every small details inour life when we settled in Bristol. He even guaranteed me when I rented a TV (yes at that timepeople rent tvs because they were expensive). We stayed in contact after my graduation for a long time and came back to visit him after few years.Douglas work on Bristol channel and his team did a pioneering work in that area although unfortunatelyit remained unpublished.Douglas loved my stories about Iraq and when I brought him a bottle of Iraqi alcohol called Arak which is brewedfrom dates and told him that the Iraqis call this drink (Abu Kalabcha) because when you drink it you feel thatyour are handcuffed, he kept it on the shelf in his room just to show it to his visitors.
Harold Vincent Dunnington (Don Dunnington)
H. V. Dunnington was a senior geologist with the IPC till its nationalization. He joined the IPC early in his career. Saleem Muhieldeen who was chief technician worked with Don told me that for 13 years he would call me in the morning to tell him: Saleem get these typed! He was the senior author of the Iraqi geologic lexicon and the author of the foundation paper (generation, migration ....) about the petroleum geology of Iraq. He also fought a long war with Shuab on the origin of stylolites that can be read in SEPM journal.
When I arrived to Bristol and I sent him a letter asking to see him. We went, me and my wife to Maidenhead where he was living. His wife cooked for us Iraqi food. He was bitter about the nationalization saying it will harm Iraq and he was right about this as he was right about the geology of Iraq. He helped me very much during the early stages of my thesis and when I sent him my first chapter to read he called me and said Sadooni go home. you do not deserve a Ph.D.. When I inquired about the reason I found out that I misspelled the name Shu'aiba Formation through the chapter. He said if you do not know how to spell a producing formation in your country, how you gonna be a good petroleum geologist!
Ziad Rafiq Beydoun
I met Ziad Baydoun during the conference on the Middle East Geology in Amman in 1994. In fact he sent for me saying that he wanted to meet me. Before this meeting, he reviewed some of my newly published papers. He said that I appeared from nowhere and started to publish extensively and he was worried that I may be publishing the work of others so he was cautious and wanted to see me and make sure that I am a real person. After few minutes, the atmosphere changed and we instantly became friends, a friendship that lasted to the unfortunately early end of his fruitful life. He helped so much in publishing my work. He was a softly spoken gentleman with a deep and wide experience in the geology of the Middle East.
Ziad transcended the political boundaries and all the usual sensitivities of the region. He wrote practically about the whole Middle East and pushed the research in the region for many decades and helped local geologists like my self to be published and known.
Gerald Friedman
I do not need to introduce Jerry Friedman. He is one of the pillars of geology and his impact will stay for many long years to come. My relation with him started when I wrote a controversial paper on the diagenesis of evaporites that no body wanted to publish. I sent the paper to him saying that if I had to be eaten then let me be eaten by the big lion. He was very happy with it and published it in "carbonate and evaporite" journal. The same story was repeated with a paper on microbial dolomite in the margins of the Dead Sea (microbial dolomite was a very controversial subject in 1993) and another paper on the salt-cored islands in the Arabian Gulf. One morning, I received an email from him saying: Dear Professor Sadooni I just finished reading your manuscript and I wanted just to let know how much I enjoyed it.
Jerry helped many people in the region and he worked hard to bring people together through geology to help bridge the religious and ethnic issues separating them.
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