01/12/08

Miles Warren Pepper

Cowboy, B-17 pilot, geologist and master finder of natural gas in the Sacramento Valley

May 15, 1921 to December 8, 2007

Miles W. (Mike) Pepper, a master finder of natural gas in the Sacramento Valley, died on Saturday December 8 in Roseville, California of respiratory failure.  He was 86. 

Mike spent 36 years as a successful consulting geologist in the Sacramento gas fields.   During that time, he discovered over 80 billion cubic feet of natural gas, and was still creating plays and finding natural gas at his death.  He loved the game.

Born in Elk, California to Lewis and Marin Pepper, Mike was delivered by a doctor who was also a veteran of the Civil War.  He spent his youth living in Bolinas, Marin County with his four brothers and four sisters.  During his teen years, he lived a cowboy’s life, hunting deer while atop his horse, and tending orchards and fields in the Monticello Valley on his parent’s ranch.   After graduating from Winters High School, he attended Sacramento City College for a few years and also worked for the family construction business. 

Mike was an Army Air Corps B-17 pilot who flew 36 missions out of England for the 8^th Air Force.   He would recall many mornings when the team discovered they were to fly over the oil fields or the ball bearing plants where the group would face a heavy barrage of flak.  Those were not good mornings.  After completing the bomber tour, he talked his way into joining a P-51 group rather than coming home to be an instructor.  He loved flying the Mustang.  Before he was deployed to the Pacific Theatre, Japan surrendered and the war was over.  He was a member of the 364^th Fighter Group and the 305^th  Bomb Group, and retired as a Lt. Colonel.

After the war, he purchased an old Stearman and barnstormed around the countryside, giving rides for $5 and landing in the cow pasture behind his family’s Bolinas home.  But finally he turned serious about getting on with his life, marrying Barbara Flatt on June 18, 1949 and attending UC Berkeley to earn a degree in Geology.  Geology took him to Montana where he received a Masters degree at Montana State School of Mines while also working as a student teacher and a miner in the Anaconda Copper Mines.  And then his long pursuit of oil and gas began.

He often remarked that first he owned a horse, then a plane, and then a car.  At the end of the war, when he was stopped on a Bolinas road by the CHP, the officer asked to see his license.  He rifled through his wallet and said “Would a commercial pilot’s license do officer?”  He didn’t get a ticket.

Mike is survived by his wife of 58 years, Barbara, and children Polly, Carol (Owen Kittredge), Miles A. (Susan Treu), and Brian (Vicki); grandchildren Josh, Miles B., Garett, Ariel, Julia, Stephen and Irina; and sisters Hazel Evans and Marin Atkinson.  He led a generous and productive life and will be sorely missed.  We know he is walking the faults and gas sands of the Sacramento Valley, now that he can see them from up high, and advising St. Peter where to drill.   

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to The Yosemite Fund, 155 Montgomery Street, Suite 1104, San Francisco, CA 94104, the Air Force Association, 1501 Lee Highway, Arlington VA 22209-1198 or to the charity of your choice.  There will be a Celebration of Life in his memory in January to recall Mike’s varied life experiences. 

Please visit www.milespepper.net  for information and to sign the online guest book.