in 1976, presented with the RMAG's Distinguished Service Award in 1991, served as president of RMAG in 1997, and is an honorary member. In 1986 he received a Distinguished Service Medal for career achievement from Colorado School of Mines and was awarded the Mines Medal for unusual and exemplary service to the School in 2000. Meissner was active in the Freemasons at Corinthian Lodge #35 in Leadville, Colorado and was a 32 degree. Meissner was a prolific technical writer and authored over 45 publications, papers, and poster sessions focusing primarily on hydrocarbon generation, migration and accumulation. His 48 years of industry experience included 16 years with Shell Oil Company working the Permian Basin, Gulf Coast, Rocky Mountain and Mid-Continent Oil Province areas. He had over 20 years cumulative experience with several independents that “found oil and were sold” including Trend Exploration, Filon Exploration, Webb Resources, and Bird Oil. He was a principal in all, with professional responsibilities ranging from exploration manager to vice president. After leaving Bird Oil in 1991 he has been an independent consultant and professor of geology at the Colorado School of Mines where he sat on thesis committees, taught a graduate course in Advanced Petroleum geology, and was a guest lecturer. Self-described as an explorationist, he was recognized internationally for his expertise in understanding and predicting the behavior of petroleum systems, including aspects of hydrocarbon generation and migration, basin-wide hydrodynamics, abnormal pressure, and the occurrence of fractured reservoirs, especially as they relate to “basin-center” oil and gas accumulations. His consultancy, Fred F. Meissner and Associates, undertook investigations for clients in several domestic U.S. areas as well as in West Africa, South America, Europe, Asia and Canada. He also provided public and private instruction on subsurface fluid pressures and their relation to patterns of petroleum generation, migration and accumulation worldwide, and taught several short courses for the Rocky Mountain Region of Petroleum Technology Transfer Council (PTTC). Thinks Like Oil Ray Thomasson, a past AAPG president and Meissner's prospecting partner, told a story related by Meissner's Shell friend and protégé Larry Meckel that typified Meissner's philosophy and style of teaching: "Fred said that petroleum geology is a science and the application of petroleum geology is an art form. Just as in fly-fishing, you have to start with the right equipment and you have to know how to use that equipment – that’s the science. But to be successful