RANCE & MARILYN FISHER
FAMILY FOUNDATION

Rance E. Fisher (born 1937) worked his way up from oilfield hand near his hometown of Lacombe, Alberta to become a pillar of the service and supply sector. Along the way he has set industry standards with his safety innovations.

Within 10 years, Fisher parlayed his first job with an Otis slickline unit into managing drilling and production for 11 states and all of Canada on behalf of Cabeen Exploration from the company’s Denver office. In 1966 he and two partners created Midalta Wireline, and when they split in 1968, he took sole ownership of the largest private fleet of well servicing components. He built CenAlta Oilwell Services into the world’s largest private fleet of well-servicing rigs.

In 1999, Fisher merged CenAlta with Petro Well Energy Services and shared the public company until Precision Drilling Corp. bought it in 2000. He then, at age 60, turned his full energies to Crown Energy Technologies, an innovative manufacturer of custom-built oilfield equipment, which he had founded in 1987. Crown was the first manufacturer to offer joystick controls on a service rig. In February 2000, Crown set a vehicle safety benchmark by building the first rig carrier ever to conform to Canadian Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.

Fisher has long been active in the Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors, the Canadian Petroleum Service Alliance and the Society of Canadian Petroleum Engineers. A member of the advisory committee to the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, he donated a working rig to provide students with field experience. A section of the facility is named after him and he was awarded an honorary Bachelor of Applied Technology degree in 2000.

Fisher supports STARS, contributes to local charities, and in 1995 launched the CenAlta FUTURES Foundation in partnership with CenAlta clients to fund programs for rural youth. He and his wife, Marilyn, have three children, two boys and one daughter.