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Interpreting Success

Mike ’55 and Pete Miesch ’55 ’62 ’63 share a brotherly bond that has helped them overcome a lifetime of obstacles.

By Dorian Martin '06

Lead photo by Igor Kraguljac '08; black and white photos provided by Pete Miesch '55 '62 '63

February 14, 2023

 

Like many siblings, Mike ’55 and Pete Miesch ’55 ’62 ‘63 have a tight bond. Growing up on a rural cotton farm in the Texas Blackland Prairies, the brothers’ rapport was forged out of love and respect. They grew even closer while facing societal challenges and limitations that emerged because of Mike’s severe hearing impairment.  

Fortunately, Pete, who is 18 months younger, developed the ability to intuitively understand his brother. Because of this shared understanding, Pete began serving as Mike’s interpreter, a devotion that continued at Texas A&M University as they earned their degrees—Mike in entomology and Pete in petroleum engineering. 

Both brothers have lived full and rich lives while remaining close over the years. Each earned advanced degrees, married and raised families, and enjoyed significant professional success, which Pete has channeled into a gift to support Texas A&M’s Geology and Geophysics Department. And it all started with a bond of brotherhood.  
 

Against All Odds 

The Miesch brothers’ deep relationship took root in a three-room house on their grandmother’s cotton farm in Clarksville, Texas. Living without electricity or indoor plumbing, the family pumped water from a cistern, took pride in a two-hole outhouse and maintained a garden, smokehouse and chicken house on the property.  
 

Pete Miesch ’55 ’62 ‘63, who is 18 months younger than his brother, Mike ’55, developed the ability to intuitively understand Mike despite severe hearing impairments.

Yet the Miesches’ boyhoods also differed from their rural peers. Mike, born almost three months prematurely, initially weighed three pounds. With the advent of neonatal intensive care units still in the distant future, Mike’s parents brought their tiny infant home, repurposed a box as a bassinet and created a makeshift incubator by moving the box close to the wood-burning stove.  

As Mike grew, his parents realized he wasn’t developing normally and took him to a doctor in Paris, Texas. The physician’s diagnosis: While the child was smart, he also suffered from severe hearing loss. Pete’s daughter, Liz, remembers hearing her grandmother recount the doctor’s advice: “Just stop feeding him, and we won’t tell anybody.” 

Needless to say, Mike’s parents didn’t take the doctor’s advice—and the family committed to helping the boy navigate life. Mike’s challenges were compounded by his severe speech impediment, a result of his hearing loss that made it difficult for others to understand him. 

Like other family members, Pete could decipher his older brother’s ideas and wishes, allowing him to take on the role of translator. Committed to his sibling’s welfare, the 4-year-old boy—unbeknownst to his grandmother or parents—followed Mike to school on his first day and peeked in the schoolhouse window to keep tabs on him. 

The teacher noticed the youngster and, realizing that he was both smart enough to succeed and could help his brother, intervened with their parents to let Pete attend first grade. “I could understand what the teacher said and communicate to Mike,” Pete explained, adding that he was responsible for writing the class notes. The brothers would study together so they could continue their schooling in lockstep. 
 

Busting Through Barriers 

When it came time to consider college, Mike faced considerable discrimination because of his hearing loss. “State employees who worked with the handicapped tried to discourage me from going to college. They said I could never make it,” he said. “I could hear vowels, but not consonants. I did not move my lips or tongue but talked with the back of my throat. Only my immediate family and close friends could understand me. I depended on lip reading but could not read lips and write at the same time.”  

Yet Mike was determined to continue his education and had an important advocate: his mother. She had also overcome barriers, becoming valedictorian of her high school class and earning a full college scholarship during a time when women weren’t encouraged to pursue higher education, though her father forbid her to go. 
 

Since the first grade, Mike ’55 and Pete Miesch ’55 ’62 ‘63 have been in lockstep studying and learning together.

Remaining together, the brothers enrolled in Paris Junior College where Mike received speech therapy and dreamed of becoming a veterinarian. Meanwhile, Pete majored in math and began considering an engineering career. 

After completing community college, Pete briefly considered Texas Tech. “It was a long way from home,” he noted, adding that he eventually accompanied some of his high school classmates to visit Texas A&M. “That’s when I knew I wanted to come here.” 

Mike also enrolled at Texas A&M, allowing the brothers to room together and support each other. To earn money, both worked in food services and parked cars at football games.  
 

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The transition to the university wasn’t easy academically. “At mid-semester, I had one B, one C, two Ds and two Fs,” Mike remembered. “They put me on probation and tried to send me home. It was a difficult first year, but I survived and realized that hope would not carry the day. I had to work twice as hard as others who could hear and speak.” 

Yet Texas A&M also offered many blessings, including Mike’s English professor, who voluntarily assisted him in improving his speech. “I learned to relax while speaking,” Mike noted. 

Ultimately, this relationship and the brothers’ other experiences at Texas A&M underscored the university’s commitment to the Aggie core value of loyalty. “I am very thankful to the students who willingly loaned me their notes and the professors who helped me reach my great desire in earning a college education,” Mike said. "Loyalty is important to Pete and me, and we admire how Texas A&M shares that value." 

Going Separate Ways 

After graduation, the brothers parted ways professionally, and both excelled. After briefly working for a pest control company, Mike was accepted into Purdue University’s entomology program, earning a master’s degree. However, he also faced more discrimination, including having every Purdue faculty member except his master’s advisor vote against admitting him to the doctoral program even though he was academically qualified.  

One faculty member recommended that Mike prove himself by working in the field, so he joined a Dallas laboratory that formulated insecticides for livestock, poultry and pets, while also taking chemistry classes at Southern Methodist University. “It seemed a comedown at the time,” Mike’s wife, Ann, said, “but it was the most important thing that happened in his career because he learned everything about formulations. All that knowledge and research is what got him his Ph.D.” 
 

Mike’s grit and resilience led to Oklahoma State University’s doctoral program, where he researched roach bait and earned his doctorate in 1964. He went on to a 36-year career with National Chemsearch, where he headed the pesticide and agronomy section.   

Pete started his career with Humble Oil working as a roustabout in the oil field before attending the company’s Reservoir School. He eventually returned to Texas A&M to earn his master’s and doctorate degrees. After graduation, he worked at Conoco before joining International Computer Operations (Intercomp), Core Lab & Alcore S.A. in Algeria, Ocean Drilling & Exploration Company (ODECO),Tomlinson Offshore, Sedco Energy and Prospect Exploration. In 1985, he founded Miesch Exploration. Over his career, he’s worked in India and supervised wells in the United States, United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Syria. He continues to “dabble” in the oil industry through participating in West Texas’ Eagle Ford. 

During his career, Pete collected geologic documents valued at $5.7 million. When he retired, he provided the Department of Geology and Geophysics with numerous well logs, cross-sections, maps and seismic lines across south and west Texas as a gift-in-kind to Texas A&M. “This data gives us a unique look into rocks that we cannot often study because the majority of this type of data is held by companies that will not share them with us, “said Dr. Michael Pope, the interim director of Texas A&M’s Berg-Hughes Center for Petroleum and Sedimentary Systems. “The information Pete supplied our department has helped multiple graduate students provide a more complete subsurface picture of some very important oil and gas reservoirs in the Eagle Ford and Austin Chalk.” 
 

The Miesch brothers’ experiences at Texas A&M underscored the university’s commitment to the Aggie core value of loyalty.

An Unbreakable Bond 

The brothers’ paths have continued to cross throughout their lives. When Pete was assigned to work at Conoco’s facility in Ponca City, Oklahoma, he was only a stone’s throw from Mike and OSU. 

And the close-knit aspect extends to their families. For example, Ann, who was Mike’s fiancé at the time, introduced Pete to her roommate, Martha—and Pete and Martha eventually married. The families—which include Mike’s and Ann’s three sons and Pete and Martha’s three daughters—visit regularly. 

Through all of life’s twists and turns, the brothers continue to know they can depend on each other. “These two are ridiculously close,” said Pete’s daughter, Liz. “I’ve never seen camaraderie between two siblings like this. If my dad needs something, he calls my uncle, who is there Johnny on the spot, and vice versa. Most people would be broken by everything they’ve faced—but not them. Nothing can break them or the special bond they share.” 
 

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