Mount Sopris’ longest serving employee
Paul Staples has been working for Mount Sopris for over 40 years, since 1977 when the office was first located in Delta, Colorado. Paul went to grade school and high school with many of the kids of then Mount Sopris owner, Fred Fowler Senior. This friendship and the location of the office within half a mile of his home led the way into a long career.
Paul, along with one other colleague Ernie Young, followed Mount Sopris to Sunnyvale, California when it was sold to EG&G along with Geometrics in the late 1980’s. Eventually, the company was sold again to Rip Taylor, Bob Crowder, and Neil Smith in the early 1990’s and moved back to Denver, Colorado. Paul has been happily working in our Denver office ever since.
Many of our customers have had the benefit of Paul’s seemingly endless patience and kindness as he has helped them test, troubleshoot, and learn how to use and process geophysical logging data. Paul is currently in charge of the Mount Sopris Rentals Department and is the first person to pick up the phone or answer and email for all of our Technical Support requests.
The following is a small interview with Paul Staples:
- How long have you been with MSI?
- 41 years
- What is your role at MSI?
- My primary role is managing rentals. Secondary to that is lead technical support, sales, and IT.
- What’s the best thing about your job?
- Its variety, and our customers.
- What does your workspace look like?
- Controlled chaos.
- What do you like to do when you’re not at the office?
- Hangout with friends and family, volunteer, cook, golf, and fish.
- Before working at MSI, what was the most unusual or interesting job you’ve ever had?
- I had a summer job as a radio tech on the Black Hills National Forest, hauling equipment up and down lookout towers and exploring the caves and mountains in my free time.
- How did you first learn about MSI?
- I went to grad school with some of Fred Fowler senior’s (the company founder) children in Delta, Colorado.
- What do you like most about MSI?
- Variety of different sensor principles encompassed by our logging tools, and my different job areas.
- If you could switch your job for any other job, what job would you want?
- Sommelier
- If you could pick one superpower, what would it be?
- Teleportation
- What is the best book you have ever read?
- The Bible, but topping my fiction list it is a bit of a tossup between Lord of the Rings, Till We Have Faces, and The Brothers Karamazov.
- What is the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten?
- Deep fried pork fat.
- If Hollywood made a movie about your life, who would you like to see cast as you?
- Tim Conway
- What is your favorite Star Trek episode?
- The Trouble with Tribbles
