In the year since our last interview, John Harvey III (BA ’85) has made big changes. After a stellar career, he retired from British Petroleum and moved from Charleston to Houston to be near family. (His crew at the Charleston plant expressed their parting appreciation with a distinguished achievement award.) His mother has moved in with John and his wife, Jennifer, and their daughter has been transferred to Dallas, putting everyone – including two grandchildren – in close proximity. John has not retired completely, however; he is currently working with a chemical company to optimize plant operations. John gives COVID-19 at least partial credit for prompting him to rearrange his life, noting, “This [pandemic] was a catalyst for us to move to Houston. It has reminded us to make the most of your time. You never know what will happen next.”
John Harvey’s phone was ringing. It was 3 a.m. Harvey (BA ’85) had just begun his appointment as manager of British Petroleum’s Charleston, S.C., plastics plant. Here, already, was his first dead-of-night call. He answered. “The operators said, ‘There’s no problem with the plant. But remember when you told us we could call you anytime, 24-7? We were just checking to see if that was true,’” Harvey said. It was true. So began a process of trust-building that has knit the team together and is paying valuable dividends. Today the Charleston plant, with a staff of about 400, has gone three and a half years without a reportable safety incident. In addition, so far, there have been no known SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus cases at the plant. Harvey said team members had embraced safety measures, including remote work for some and masks for everyone else. Employees also have been diligent in reporting contacts with others who might have been exposed to the virus. “This is the environment that you want to create,” he said. “If our people see that they they’ve been anywhere near someone, they’ll raise their hand and say, ‘Hey, my sister’s friend found out that he had it,’ and we'll send them home. They understand why it’s important to stay home. The whole thing right now is a partnership.” “The plant is built on trust,” Harvey added. For those who continue to work on site, there is a sense of stepping up to a mission. The Charleston plant produces fibers that go into N95 protective masks and clothing, as well as plastics used in manufacturing water bottles. At a moment of national challenge, the team has an extra measure of pride that comes with playing a clear role in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Harvey followed a distinctive path to leadership – one that passed through some grueling years when he paired full-time work at Tulsa’s Amoco production research facility with TU chemistry classes, young married life, fatherhood, and work at a local nursing home. “The biggest thing I learned through that experience is not to give up,” he said. “Sometimes I could only take one class a semester. It would have been easy for me to say, ‘No, I’m not going to finish.’ And there were times I had to take a class and then get back to work [at Amoco]. I didn’t take the easiest route. But if you don’t give up, there are rewards in the future.” Harvey, a Houston native, had completed more than three years in the University of Texas system before moving to Tulsa to take advantage of an employment opportunity at Amoco’s research facility at 41st and Yale. Although he had been pursuing a pre-med path, he found the challenges of oil production fascinating. “I dealt with chemistry so much that I ended up enjoying it,” he said, “Understanding the reactions, and understanding what would happen. They would send me out on drilling rigs to troubleshoot issues. It got to be a puzzle and I totally enjoyed it.” With the welfare of his young family secured through his job, Harvey eventually found his way back to study at TU. “The thing is, I didn’t realize TU was a private institution,” he said. “I didn’t have that kind of money, but I did it anyway.” Costs aside, Harvey has fond memories of his time at TU. “When I transitioned from the University of Texas to Tulsa, TU represented more of a family atmosphere instead of a number,” he said. “I got to know a lot of the professors I was dealing with – Dr. Teeters, Dr. Howard, Dr. McKay, Dr. Takach – I could just keep going.” Harvey was one of the first TU students to present a project to the American Chemical Society. Those opportunities mattered. “I enjoyed every minute of my time at Tulsa,” he said. “My biggest thing was that I made a decree to myself and said if I ever get out of The University of Tulsa, I’m going to help somebody else out so it won’t be this hard.” That promise became the Harvey Scholarship in Engineering and Natural Sciences – an endowed need-based award that will support students in perpetuity, with an emphasis on women and students of color. “Once in a while, we’ll get a card or letter from a student [recipient],” Harvey said. “It’s kind of like having another family member. I’ll read the cards and hand them to my wife [Jennifer], and she’ll just cry. We want this to make a difference, and you can tell that it does.” In addition to being an endowed scholarship donor and member of TU’s Chapman Legacy Society and Circle Society, Harvey serves on TU’s Chemistry Advisory Board. Harvey’s scholarship falls under the heading of “doing right by others.” This theme is a constant in his career – whether it is helping the community with school supplies or investing in environmental improvements at the plant. “We just spent $200 million about two years ago to reduce our carbon footprint,” he said. “We lowered our emissions by over 40%. Whatever we can do to support the environment, we’re trying to do.” Harvey recently convinced BP to make a $1 million gift to the International African American Museum, which is being built in Charleston’s wharf district, where as many as 40% of America’s enslaved Africans arrived. The museum plans to open in 2022. “There are people who work at the plant whose forefathers worked on the same site when it was a plantation,” Harvey noted. “I’m proud to have played a role in getting the company to make this gift.” In the context of 2020’s heightened nationwide focus on racial injustice and the need for change, Harvey said we need to do more to encourage Black students to pursue careers in STEM. “All the while that I was a student at Tulsa, there weren’t many people who looked like me in the chemistry program,” he said. “And going to the advisory board meetings, there still aren’t. I think there’s got to be a way to enhance the representation of people of color.” “All of the jobs I’ve done, I don’t think there was one where I wasn’t the first person of color to have that position,” he continued. “There’s something that we need to do differently. [TU] has a lot of people who can support this, so we need to do what we can.” Harvey’s role in Charleston is his tenth appointment as a facility manager. His career includes earlier roles with Amoco (later acquired by BP), Ineos in Houston, and Elevance Renewable Sciences in Woodridge, Illinois. His work with Elevance included building a plant in Indonesia – a project for which he relocated and learned the Indonesian language. Making that accomplishment even more impressive, Harvey simultaneously managed a plant launch in Mississippi. Harvey said one of his proudest achievements was taking the helm at BP’s troubled Chocolate Bayou plastics site near Houston. After a 2005 fire destroyed half the plant, the company brought Harvey in to direct rebuilding and restaffing efforts. In 2008, the Texas Chemical Council honored him with the Gerald R. Ehrman Award for Leadership in Safety Management by a Plant Manager. As a man with a long list of career achievements, Harvey is gracious about being named a 2020 Distinguished Alumnus. “I am totally humbled and honored by this,” he said. “Never in a million years did I feel something like this would happen. I thank TU for all it’s done for me, and hopefully I can give half as much back.”