Michael T. Gracey

Mike Gracey was born in Port Arthur, Texas on April 25, 1942 and grew up around the oil refineries & chemical plants in that area. He pursued an engineering education so he could understand "how things work" because of his fascination with mechanical things like engines and transmissions. After a couple of years at LeTourneau College in Longview, Texas Mike attended night school at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas while working as a pipe fitter's helper in a shipyard. He was able to move into the engineering department where he worked and got married at age 20. Later when returning to school on a full time basis, he worked as a licensed tankerman pumping petroleum products into barges around the Port Arthur and Beaumont area until graduation from Lamar in 1971. By 1973, Mike was working at the National Maritime Research Center (NMRC) in Galveston, Texas and became involved in testing special nozzles and methods for water blast cleaning, surface preparation and coatings. This lead to the more specialized area of high-pressure pumps used for water jetting. Starting in 1976, He worked for high-pressure pump manufacturers and packagers in Texas, Maryland and Michigan to help design and build systems using the technology. Mike presently works for Weatherford International, Inc. using Kobe pumps and their line of industrial pumps to handle chemicals, water, oil products, hot fluids and cryogenics. Mike enjoys writing and public speaking, having published over 40 articles and technical papers.