HOOTS, Harold

HOOTS, Harold (1899-1979), Kansas-born Stanford alumnus and chief geologist for the Union Oil Company who was known as a renowned finder of oil fields. As a scholar, he wrote a U.S. Geological Survey bulletin on the Santa Monica Mountains that is considered the bible of Los Angeles geology. In 1938, Hoots, along with fellow geologists Frank Morgan, Rodman Cross, and Thomas Dibblee, mapped the geology of Santa Rosa Island for Richfield Company. As one of the nation's foremost oil finders, Hoots knew where and when to invest his capital, and thus he became very wealthy.