Murray Hitzman '76

General Manager, Chevron Mineral Corporation of Ireland

GEOLOGY PROFESSOR Naomi Oreskes calls Hitzman "a real modern-day adventurer." Hitzman's work as an exploration geologist has taken him to Alaska, the Yukon, West Germany, France, Austria, Italy, Spain, Scandinavia, Morocco, Brazil, Papua New Guinea, and Australia. One of his biggest adventures was in Ireland for Chevron, where, beginning in 1988, he single-handedly started and managed an exploration. When early attempts to find ore failed, he found his budget slashed; Chevron managers had given up hope that ore would be discovered in Ireland. Still, Hitzman managed to convince his bosses to let him continue. He did everything from swinging the claims from the government to drilling the discovery hole. In April 1990, the drill hit paydirt in County Tipperary: high-grade zinc-lead-silver deposits worth more than $1.5 billion, the largest ore deposit discovered in Europe in 20 years. The discovery promises to make Ireland one of the world's largest zinc exporters. The company gave Hitzman its Chairman's Award in recognition of his "innovation, creativity, and risk-taking."