Page 108 - midland

fve questions, and it took me 88 pages on a legal pad to answer them, but I passed it!” And so, in 1975, despite having an extensive case load while working as a Texas Ranger, Al Mitchell managed to receive his Associate of Applied Science degree in Criminal Justice. Mitchell was enjoying his life in Midland and career as a Texas Ranger. Then, in 1977, public and private oil companies started taking notice of him. Shell Oil Company offered him a job working in their corporate security department with a very lucrative salary, but Mitchell was hesitant to accept because he says, “I did not want to leave the Ranger service. I could have stayed there the rest of my life.” Mitchell asked his friend, Tom Brown, owner of Tom Brown, Inc., to “evaluate” the Shell job offer and let him know if it was any good. At the time, Tom Brown, Inc., was the largest independent oil company in Texas. Brown’s response: “You don’t want to go to work for a major oil company and have to move to Houston. Come to work for me. We would have offered you a job a long time ago, but we didn’t know we could hire you out of the Ranger service.” Mitchell replied, “I don’t know if you can.” Mitchell explains, “I did everything I could not to go to work for those oil companies.” But, then he