Desk and Derrick Club: Engraved in Graham for 66 years

Desk and Derrick Club of Graham is a 28-member energy industry educational club which has been meeting for 66 years in the community.

According to club director Judy Kinser, the club was started in Graham in 1953 by Edith Touchstone, who worked for Bruce and Boyd Street. She had discovered the organization through the Fort Worth club and was encouraged by the Streets to begin the Graham club. However, Desk and Derrick Clubs are not only in Texas, in 1949 the organization was started by Inez Awty Schaefer in New Orleans. Schaefer, who worked for Humble Oil and Refining Company, started the club because she wanted to meet other women working in the oil and gas industry.

“For the longest (time, the club) was just women, but now they have opened it up and any man, there’s the same requirements for men and women, that works in the oil and gas industry can come to the meeting.” Kinser said.

Now, all of the clubs in the United States and Canada make up the Association of Desk and Derrick Clubs, which Graham Club member Terry Ligon serves as president of.

She added while the club is not required by the national organizations by-laws to hold community events, the Graham club does anyways. Every year, the club partners with First United Methodist Church to organize Our Daily Bread, which provides a community meal throughout the summer.

For the rest of the story see the Wednesday, April 17 edition of The Graham Leader.