Distinguished Achievement Award in Environmental Systems Engineering and Geo-Environmental Engineering
Lawrence (Larry) Goodheart began his forty-year career with Chevron in the Refining Department, working at the Toledo, Philadelphia and Richmond refineries in various operations and engineering positions. Many of his assignments focused on improving refinery environmental performance: design of the Toledo refinery wastewater plant upgrade, operation supervisor of Philadelphia’s Effluent Treatment Plant, and identifying the operational variables contributing to the toxicity
of effluent water quality.
Most of his career was spent in the San Francisco Bay Area in the Health, Environment, and Safety group of Chevron’s engineering department, managing both the Loss Prevention and Environmental Units. His groups were responsible for providing technical support for Chevron’s global upstream and downstream business units through: applied R&D programs, technical consulting, compliance assurance, remediation, and capital project design.
He also served for many years as the secretary for the Petroleum Environmental Research Forum and also chair of the Research Mgr.’s Discussion Group. In 1990, he represented American Petroleum in a negotiated rulemaking with EPA, chemical industry, environmental groups, and state and local agencies for the development of Clean Air Act national standards for the control of volatile hazardous air pollutants from mechanical process equipment leaks.
Goodheart was active in Chevron’s campus recruiting for environmental and safety graduates at Penn State. He has worked to establish student scholarships, support the student society, and provide funding for new lab equipment. He continues to serve on the environmentalsystems engineering program’s
industrial and professional advisory council.
Goodheart graduated from Penn State in 1975 with a degree in chemical engineering. Goodheart and his wife, Clarice, have a son, Tom, currently
living in Holland, OH.