Stephen John Mills (SH 56-61)    The following is an edited version of a notice kindly supplied by Bruce Blanche, a colleague of Stephen’s:
“Stephen John Mills died peacefully during the afternoon of Saturday, 7 January, 2012 in Calgary, Canada after a long and courageous battle against Parkinson’s disease. Steve was well known to many people internationally in the E&P industry. He was born on the 20th November 1942 in Gosforth, Northumberland.  He was the only son of John and Florence Eileen Mills. He was educated at St Bees School in Cumbria from 1956 to 1961. After completing his ‘A’ levels he gained a place at the University of Durham in 1961, graduating with a BSc Honours degree in Geology in 1964 and later completed an MSc in micro-palaeontology at  London University in 1965.
	20th Nov 1942 - 7th Jan 2012
His first job was with Burmah Oil Company in Ecuador in 1965. He was hired as a micro-palaeontologist but he soon moved over to more general exploration-geology. In 1972 Steve was transferred to Burmah’s Perth office in Western Australia, where the giant Northwest Shelf gas/condensate discoveries made this period exciting times for the company. The exploration and operation teams in the Perth office were of a very high calibre, and Steve was later appointed District Geologist in the Bonaparte Gulf Basin, his work resulting in the multi-TCF gas/condensate discoveries at Sunrise, Troubadour and Kelp. Subsequent to that he was involved in geological field work in Indonesia and Portuguese Timor in an effort that opened up the island of Timor and some neighbouring islands to oil and gas drilling. Steve later transferred back to London where he became responsible for exploration in Burmah’s assets in the central North Sea. In 1977 BNOC took over Burmah’s North Sea subsidiary, BODL, and he moved to BNOC in Glasgow. While in Ecuador and Australia Steve became excited by the new theory of global plate tectonics which emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was able to use these new global tectonic concepts in his basin analysis on the NW Shelf of Australia and in the North Sea. At BNOC he was much admired for his skill in being able to condense a play into a single diagram which showed its new plate tectonic setting and all its attributes. In 1979 he moved to Hudbay Oil International in Calgary in the role of Manager of Geology with a worldwide brief. Hudbay and Canada were good times for Steve. Hudbay was an excellent company with a great team of professionals and had significant exploration success, particularly in Indonesia. During this period Steve developed an attractive and well-balanced portfolio of assets at Hudbay, adding to assets already existing and acquiring new ones. Steve was very well liked in Hudbay and was highly regarded by the management and board of the parent company. Steve moved back to London during early 1983 and assumed the position of International Geology Manager at Lasmo, reporting to his friend and mentor, Dick Fowle whom he had met in Ecuador. Throughout his seven years with the company he filled various senior exploration-management and international new venture roles. Under Steve’s guidance the new ventures group worked to build on their international portfolio. There were some notable successes under his stewardship, in particular the participation in Algeria which proved to be such a huge success for the company. During this period Lasmo grew into a large E&P company and his contribution played a major part in achieving this. He impressed all with his ability to talk knowledgeably about any sedimentary basin in the world, with a remarkable expanse of knowledge, and he was modest with it. He had a phenomenal memory and could recall conversations, discussions at meetings and reports read in amazing detail. He was a perfectionist and brought this trait into all the recommendations and decisions in which he participated. Steve was a good manager to work for, and was always supportive of those under his supervision. Despite his affable and easy-going manner, his standards were extremely high and he demanded the same from those in his team. In late 1990 CanadianOxy offered him the position of International Exploration Vice President in Calgary, which he accepted. At that time the company was in an expansionist mode and the international new venture group was an exciting place in which to work. Again, Steve inspired all with his quiet competence and extraordinary knowledge about seemingly every petroleum province in the world. He continued to be very highly regarded by his colleagues and the senior management in CanadianOxy and contributed significantly to the growth and success of the company internationally. The early stages of his illness became apparent during this period. In 1996 he left CanadianOxy to pursue a career as a consultant. The combination of his broad level of experience in international exploration, his extensive geological knowledge and his wide range of industry contacts was keenly sought in the industry. He always had a keen interest in military history and from 1984 was a regular visitor to the two world war battlefields in Europe. By about 2000, having been diagnosed with a variety of Parkinson’s disease, Steve decided to discontinue his petroleum consulting and redirected his energy and enthusiasm into military history publications. He took over the running of the book shop in the Museum of the Regiments at Currie Barracks in Calgary, and became involved in the publication of military history books and the proof reading of books in preparation for publishing. He was also very active in the marketing of military history books and attended numerous conferences and exhibitions on this topic in Canada and the US. Earlier, in 1997, he authored and published a book on the Canadian battlefields of the Great War titled “A Task of Gratitude”. This book was well received in Canada and drew many accolades. As Steve’s health deteriorated it became clear that he needed sheltered accommodation. As he remained determined to travel he took on the services of a part-time carer, David Adie, who would accompany him on his various trips to the US, around Canada, to the UK and Europe and once even to Australia. The care and dedication of David throughout this period contributed significantly to maintaining Steve’s quality of life, as he was able to travel, maintain contact with friends and pursue his military history and geological interests. Steve had great spirit and firm determination as demonstrated during his long illness. He will be remembered as a gentleman, an excellent geologist, a military historian and above all as a loyal and trusted friend. He was erudite, broadly read, a linguist and a wonderful raconteur.” Colleague, Bruce Blanche, adds: “Steve’s time at St Bees was formative. An interest in steam engines was stimulated by the pleasure of watching express trains pass by close to the boundary of the school’s grounds, an exhilarating sight for Steve and his companions. More important was his time in the school cadet corps - Steve got to fire his section’s bren gun, albeit loaded with dummy wooden bullets, which splintered upon leaving the muzzle. However, in hindsight, a subversive mood seemingly took over. The film ‘IF’, starring Malcolm MacDowell, was a favourite of his, portraying as it does the ‘takeover’ of a public school by the senior pupils. ‘IF’ appears to have reflected a deep-seated anarchic tendency in Steve, at odds with his conventional, establishment exterior. It was this type of tension which made Steve’s character so fascinating to his friends.” Dacre Watson (SH 56-62) writes: “Steve and I were on the same house at St Bees from 1956 to 1961 when he left to go to Durham University. During the early years he was very quiet and while not quite a loner, he was probably happy to be on the periphery of our rather boisterous rugby group; always there and always welcome, but slightly unnoticed. It was only in the lower sixth that we got to know each other. We shared a study and found that we got on well and had much to discuss and chat about. He was no athlete and at a school where rugby and running were very much on a high altar this could be something of a disadvantage, but he undertook most sports with a resigned stoicism, and often with a pleasantly barbed comment at those more athletically gifted. We shared a study again in the upper sixth during the time when Sartre and Camus were much discussed by pseudo intellectual sixth formers and both he and I thought at the time that we were rather good at it. I still cringe at the memory of how insufferable we must have appeared, though he was far more intelligent than I and probably knew what he was talking about. I certainly didn't. We both enjoyed listening to music, though I don't think that he played anything; in particular, Wagner was a regular feature for us as was Holst, who was making something of a revival at the time. Steve wasn't an actor either as I remember, but one day walking down the passage to our study I heard this very loud language, clearly a speech of some sort, in German; it was Steve holding forth to an audience of a few others impersonating Hitler at one of the Nuremberg rallies. We were all impressed and said so. Later, with a gentle smile, he told me that the text of his speech had in fact been a table order for some food. He could laugh at himself. He was easy to talk to and had a pleasantly dry sense of humour, which was usually aimed at the pompous. We often had long walks together on Sunday afternoons; nothing particularly deep, just putting the world right. We lost touch after we left school, though I did meet him again some years later at a dinner by which time the bond had been broken. Much later, in 1971 (I think), we met accidentally in Quito though only for an evening since he was off to the Yungas the next day. He was a good man in the best sense of the word and I would suspect that in later life he was a friend to many and a good one to have.”

 

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