===The following is a brief autobiographical resume' of the author.==

			THE AUTHOR

	Eddie Royce Killian, 'Ed' to his friends, was born in a small 
oil camp near Ida in Caddo Parish, Louisiana on May 3, 1940. His 
father, Jewel R. Killian was then employed by Arkansas Fuel Oil and 
worked in the area of Rodessa, Vivian, Oil City and Ida which were 
then experiencing a boom in shallow oil drilling. His mother, 
Victoria Hinton Causey, 'Vicki', had attended beautician school in 
Shreveport after her graduation from Doyline High School in Webster 
Parish. Vicky was working in Vivian and Rodessa when she met Jewel.
	When Ed was about age two the family moved to Jefferson in 
East Texas where Jewel worked as a pumper for Arkansas Fuel Oil. Ed 
and his family lived with Ollie and Margaret Caldwell, Margaret being 
the sister of Jewel. Ollie was also employed with Arkansas Fuel Oil. 
When World War II broke, Ed and his parents moved to Goose Creek 
and Pelly, now parts of Baytown, Texas where Jewel worked in a 
'defense plant' refinery.  
	Meanwhile, Arkansas Fuel Oil had made a shallow oil discovery 
in Karnes County, Texas, and the company asked Jewel to move to 
south-central Texas to manage the company's new property in Karnes 
County. Ed and his family arrived in Runge, Karnes County, Texas in 
late 1943 and, after living in rented rooms in town, moved to company 
housing at Route 1, Box 100 in the Arkansas Fuel Oil camp some four 
and one-half miles south of Runge. There were two families in the 
camp, the Killians and the Norrises, each family had one child, a son, 
and these two boys grew up together in the camp which locals sometimes 
referred to as 'Cactus Hill'.
	Young Eddie started to school in 1946 at Runge with classmates 
who were mostly offspring of the German and Polish farmers of the area.  
He and his parents attended the Runge First Baptist Church where he was 
a 'Royal Ambassador' and he attended the Baptist Camp at Leaky, Texas 
in the summer of 1952.
	Runge was a small town, population 1078, when the Killians 
arrived and ten years later the population was 1024. Ed's first grade 
class had twenty children and his 1958 High School graduating class had 
eighteen members, some twelve of whom were members of the first grade 
class. Ed was president of the Senior Class, Band Sweetheart, lettered 
in football and basketball and was selected as a member of the All 
District Band. Indeed, in such a small school, everyone participated 
in every activity, thereby providing "a well rounded education".
	Following graduation in May of 1958, he attended the Texas A & M 
summer session at Junction, Texas. Convinced he was not ready for college, 
he joined the U. S. Navy in August of 1958 and spent four years in the 
Navy with postings in San Diego and Los Alamitos, California, Pensacola, 
Norfolk and then thirty-three months aboard the U. S. S. Lake Champlain, 
CVS-39, an antisubmarine carrier homeported in Quonset Point, Rhode Island.  
	The Lake Champlain routinely sailed the North Atlantic and served 
on special duties such as 'Lifeguard' for President John F. Kennedy's 
trip to Moscow, and as recovery vessel for the first U. S. manned space 
shot by Alan Shepard on May 5, 1961. Ed was the first to communicate 
with Alan Shepard when he re-entered the earth's atmosphere on that first 
manned space shot. In the following years, he and Alan Shepard often spoke 
of the event and recalled the excitement of that historic occasion. While 
in the Navy, Ed met Kathleen Fearing, cousin of a shipmate, Rob Lockyer. 
He and Kathy became very close, but lost touch over the years.
	On separation from the Navy, Ed returned to Texas and entered 
Del Mar Junior College in Corpus Christi, Texas. Using the G. I. Bill 
and working part-time with Gault Aviation and BJ Services, an oil well 
cementing company, he was later awarded the Janowski scholarship by the 
Corpus Christi Geological Society. He worked the summers with Cities Service 
Oil Company in Hobbs, New Mexico and Hull-Daisetta, Texas and in 1965 
transferred to the University of Texas at Austin. Shortly after, he was 
awarded another scholarship by Texaco, Inc. and supplemented his income 
by working for Dr. Sam Ellison of the Department of Geology and with the 
State of Texas Water Commission.
	Participating in the Honors Program, Ed left the University of Texas 
in January of 1967 and went to work for Texaco, Inc. in Tyler, Texas. In 
early 1969 the Tyler Texaco office was closed and the staff moved to 
Houston. In 1969, Ed was selected to go to Norway and England as a 
well-site geologist. While he was in Europe, he built his first house at 
9306 Sandstone Street in southwest Houston. After his return to Houston 
from the foreign duty, he was promoted to Assistant District Geologist, 
then Division Staff Geologist and finally Assistant District Geologist. 
In 1971 he was selected as a permanent staff member for Texaco Limited 
in London, U. K. He worked as Regional Geologist, NW Europe and later 
as Chief Geologist, NW Europe. His work took him to Ireland, Denmark, 
Norway, Germany, Netherlands, Spain and several other European countries. 
He visited San Carlos de la Rapita, Spain and Brielle in the Netherlands. 
He vacationed in Ireland and England, returning twice to the U. S. for 
home leave.
	While Ed was in London, his first son, James Hampton, was born. 
In 1975, Ed and his family returned to Houston, Texas where he purchased 
a home at 10010 Candlewood, Briargrove Park, Houston. Ed was then Regional 
Geologist, West Africa, with Texaco. In 1976 he left Texaco and joined 
J. M. Huber Corporation as Gulf Coast District Manager. After four years 
he then became Vice President for Transco, Inc., officing in the Transco 
Tower at the Galleria, Houston.
	In 1980 he became Senior VP-General Manager for Sandifer Oil and 
Gas, a new company with investment backing from Federal Express, Ashland Oil 
and a number of other corporations. In 1982 he left Sandifer and consulted 
for firms in Houston, New York, San Francisco and elsewhere.
	In 1983 he and the family, which now included John Taylor, born 1981, 
moved to Natchez, Mississippi and lived at 116 Woodhaven Drive. He was 
Senior Vice President, Oil and Gas Exploration and Production, Land and 
Legal, for Callon Petroleum. Leaving Callon and the oil and gas industry 
in 1985, he dedicated a year to the preparation and planning for the 
Natchez National Historical Park. Working closely with Senator Trent Lott, 
he was successful in getting the park approved by Congress and saw it signed 
into law by President Ronald Reagan in less than one year, an unheard of 
accomplishment in governmental bureaucratic circles. He was recogized for 
his work in historic preservation by the City of Natchez, the Chamber of 
Commerce, the Natchez Historical Society, the Trust for Public Land and the 
Secretary of the Interior, the Honorable Donald Hodel. He was selected as 
a Volunteer Laureate by the Mississippi Department of Development and cited 
by Governor Ray Mabus for his accomplishments in Industrial Development.
	After passage of the National Park project, he purchased a small 
sign-making operation in Vidalia, Louisiana and trained himself in computers, 
which he adapted for use in the graphics business. Shortly after, he became 
a director of Louisiana Central Bank and Moderator of the Board of Trustees 
for the Natchez Community Hospital. He was a member of the Rotary Club of 
Natchez, Chairman of the Natchez-Adams County Chamber of Commerce, member 
of the founding board for the St. Catherine's Creek National Wildlife Refuge 
Assn., Charter Member of Leadership Natchez, Principal Coordinator for the 
first Mississippi referendum on Riverboat Gaming and a member of a number of 
other civic organizations.
	In 1994 he purchased a 16,000 sq. ft. building at 406 Liberty Road, 
moved the graphics company, Custom Sign & Graphics, Inc. into the building 
and converted 6,000 sq. ft. of the space into tenant office space. In 1999 
he purchased a competitor, Master Sign Crafters. Among his regular customers 
were Ducks Unlimited, for whom the graphics company made a number of large 
carved wood signs for newly dedicated refuges throughout the Southeastern 
States.
	In 1999, Ed downsized for retirement and settled into a smaller home 
at 4 Emerald Court, Natchez and in September 2000 he retired, selling the 
rental properties and the graphics business. Ed is deeply involved in 
computing, and he travels extensively. In 2004 he separated from his wife 
and moved to eastern Tennessee where he now lives at 206 Rutherford Court, 
Clinton, TN 37716. In 2005 he reunited with his first love, Kath Fearing.
	Ed continues to research his family's history. His ten year family 
research on the descendants of George Killian (1740-1830) is now largely 
completed and posted on the World Wide Web. His work on the Killian family 
history has drawn widespread praise from Killian relatives and professional 
genealogical researchers.

Ed Killian
206 Rutherford Court
Clinton, TN 37716
edkilian@bellsouth.net

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