Of Santa Barbara, California, passed away peacefully on March 10, 2020, at his daughter’s home in Arlington, Virginia, surrounded by his family. Born in Los Angeles in 1927 to Alfred and Marion Mannon, he was a graduate of Los Angeles High School where he was a starting center on the football team. He served in the Navy at the end of World War II and was stationed on the cruiser USS Dayton. He attended Stanford University, where he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon. After receiving a degree in Petroleum Engineering in 1950, he began a career that spanned 70 years in the oil and gas industry. He was a respected expert and author in the field of petroleum reservoir engineering, enhanced oil recovery and oil and gas reserve estimation, receiving both his master’s degree and his doctorate from the University of Southern California. His career took him to the oil fields of the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt where in 1954 he married Dorothy Simpson of Los Angeles in Cairo. Bob and Dodie resided in Cairo, Egypt; Los Angeles; Butte, Montana; Houston, Texas, and finally settled in Santa Barbara at Hope Ranch.
He worked worldwide for several major and independent oil companies, including Gulf Oil, Buttes Oil & Gas, Allied Chemical, Ogle Petroleum and held professorships at Montana College of Mineral Science and Technology, the University of Southern California and Louisiana University – Lafayette. In 1983 he founded Mannon Associates where he created a software program for oil well decline curve analysis that offered a revolutionary approach to reservoir engineering and reserve estimates. He also served as an expert witness and arbitrator, including a successful offshore California case tried in Washington, D.C. In addition to his love of engineering, he participated in several Bible studies in Santa Barbara and was a member of Bel Air Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles, Memorial Presbyterian in Houston, and El Montecito Presbyterian in Santa Barbara. He was a member of the Santa Barbara Rotary Club, the Christian Business Men’s Connection, and the Society of Petroleum Engineers. His love and knowledge of old movies came from his visits to his father’s Tec-Art movie studios in Hollywood on the site of what is now Raleigh Studios.
His family will fondly remember his love for his family, his faith, his story telling, and his love of writing poems for important family celebrations. He is predeceased by his loving wife Dodie and his brothers William Mannon and Alfred Mannon. He is survived by his four children, Robert Mannon (Amy) of McLean, Virginia; Jan Coles of Arlington, Virginia; David Mannon (Mary Lynn) of Houston, Texas; Mark Mannon (Jennifer) of Newport Beach, California and his ten grandchildren, Seth Mannon, Emily Mannon Godinho (Alex), Connor Mannon, William Mannon, Caroline Mannon, Morgan Mannon, David “Bo” Mannon, Joseph Mannon, Mary Louise Mannon, and Charlie Mannon. A memorial service will be held at El Montecito Presbyterian Church in Santa Barbara at a date to be announced this summer. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in his name to Threshold Ministries of Orcutt, CA or The Mannon Family Fellowship Fund at the School of Earth Sciences at Stanford University (giving.stanford@stanford.edu). Online condolences may be left at Welch-Ryce-Haider.
