René Heyte – 18 Nov. 2020

[ASLB Webadmin]

Our past, and much missed, ALLIANCE Schlumberger President, René Heyte passed away on 18th November 2020.
His family have requested “ni fleurs ni couronnes”. His daughter Carine confirmed they would welcome if we can compile nice words from his friends, before first thing Wednesday morning (his funeral).
Please leave your thoughts and memories of René as comments to this forum post.

[Gerard Zivy]

René,
Thank you for your brilliant contributions to making ALLIANCE what it is today.
Adieu mon ami
Gérard

[Gerard Zivy]

René Heyte – Aix, 2016

[Gunadi Kurniawan]

I am truly sorry to hear of the loss of René. Please accept our condolences and may our prayers help comfort you and hasten the journey of his soul to Heaven. May René’s loved ones have the strength to endure this loss.

[Canice Mcgarry]

RIP René
A legend and long time friend you will always be remembered for the smile the humor and the wit Never a dull day was had in your presence
Missing you

Canice and Marian

[Amin Amin]

RIP Rene
Our thoughts with the family.

[Nancy Sayer]

To René’s family, please accept my condolences.
Rene’s presence was always his gift.
He was one of the ‘figures’ I most remember during the early ’80s. I write about him several times in my Years at Intercom on the Alliance site.
The first was in the Spring of 1980 when René came bouncing into our office. He was fresh back from China where Schlumberger was to sign its first onland service contract for logging in Dagang with two CSU units. With photos galore and a great story to tell, René was in such high spirits!
But mainly, I’ll never forget his booming voice and presence as he’d lunge down the halls of our offices in Montrouge, greeting absolutely everyone, spreading good cheer and an infectious energy to all.
His wife Kathy Pierre and I will never forget either. Mainly, her love of India, which permeating her so strongly.
And, that New Year’s Eve at the Heyte’s in Paris, with Yemi and Kate and several others from Wireline. The warmth of companionship the Heyte’s spread, the wonderful Body Mary’s René concocted. It has remained one of the happiest of my life’s memories.
It was naturally painful to see René again, 30 years later, at the Alliance reunion in Berlin. So diminished, so sick. But he garnered the energy he could and that twinkle in his eye was still there. Adieu, my friend.

[Maria Schoonbeek]

I am sorry that Mr Heyte Passded away. Many condolences to his Dear Family. I remember, my late husband, Jurren, Talked favorably of him. God bless his soul, RIP in heaven.
Maria Schoonbeek

[Corydon (Don) Mitchell]

I am saddened to learn of the passing of Rene. Energetic, friendly, kind, considerate and funny are just some of the adjectives we can use to describe Rene. I will miss him at our gatherings. I am grateful for his contribution to the Alliance May his soul rest in peace. Condolences to his family.

[Gregg Vernon]

I remember Rene very well even though we worked together in 1982, he was one of the great one we meet along the way. My heartfelt condolences to his Family and close friends.

[Nancy Sayer]

René’s presence was his gift.
He was one of the ‘figures’ I most remember during the early ’80s. I write about him several times in my Years at Intercom on the ALLIANCE site.
The first was in the Spring of 1980 when René came bouncing into our office, fresh back from China where Schlumberger was to sign its FIRST onland service contract for logging in Dagang with two CSU units. With photos galore and a great story to tell, René was in such high spirits!
But mainly, I’ll never forget his booming voice and presence as he’d lunge down the halls of our offices in Montrouge, greeting absolutely everyone, spreading good cheer and an infectious energy to all.
His wife Kathy Pierre and I will never forget either. Mainly, her love of India, which permeating her so strongly.
And, that New Year’s Eve at the Heyte’s in Paris, with Yemi and Kate and several others from Wireline. The warmth of companionship the Heyte’s spread, the wonderful Body Mary’s René concocted. It has remained one of the happiest of my life’s memories.
It was naturally painful to see René again, 30 years later, at the ALLIANCE reunion in Berlin. So diminished, so sick. But he garnered the energy he could and that twinkle in his eye was still there.
All I can say is Adieu, my friend. You added something very special to my life.

[Jean-Claude Blondeau]

RIP René

[Mike Wren]

I was very sad to hear that Rene had passed away. I remember many happy after-work drinks with him and the other bachelors in Bushehr in 1968 where he always had some funny stories to tell. Later, in 1977, I replaced him in Warri, Nigeria, where the operators talked about him for months after he had left. He was a great person to be around. My condolences to his family.

Mike Wren

[David Bergt]

Rene and I were of the same vintage–never worked at the same assignment but bumped into each other many times in all parts of the world. As someone said, he was ‘one of the great ones’. He was the classic Schlumberger engineer, roaming the world and comfortable wherever he was sent whether a big city or out in the far boonies. He brought joy to all with his GREAT sense of humor and perpetually bubbling personality. No need to say this because you all know it already, but he will be truly missed by all. Keep rolling, Rene!!!
Dave Bergt
Houston

[Pierre Bihan]

J’ai rencontré René lors de notre réunion de Bordeaux en 2019. J’étais assis à coté de lui lors d’un long trajet en bus et il a eu à peine le temps de me résumer sa carrière trépidante. On ne s’est jamais rencontré au travail, car il avait quitté Schlumberger avant que je ne commence; mais comme beaucoup, j’avais été surpris par sa bonne humeur et sa positivité. Repose en paix René.

[Miguel Ludena Arrocha]

May your soul rest in peace Rene! Fresh memories from our Bordeaux meeting! Very entertained dinner time! RIP…

[Philip Freeman]

I was very sad to hear of Rene’s passing. We were novice log-analysts together in Clamart about 197,3 and I well remember his cheerful attitude and competitive nature. We would race in the streets of Clamart after work. His Renault against my Lotus. Great fun!
He was always the life and soul of our many trips to the fine restaurants of Paris.
You will be missed my friend.
Phil Freeman
Houston

[Ashok Rao]

René recruited me in Bombay in 1977 and was very much involved in my transfer to international assignment in 1980. I owe him a ton of gratitude for shaping my life. Thank you René and may you Rest In Peace. Heartfelt condolences to the family

[Ernest Collet]

All our mourning for a very good friend Ernest & Didie Collet

[Dieter Ramcke]

May your soul rest in peace! My sincere condolences to Rene’s family and closed friends.
Dieter

[Jean-Daniel Peyrat]

René,

I remember
– Your smile, your humor, your gift for imitating voices leading to memorable funny encounters.
– Hot nights in Abidjan.
– Cool evenings in Niamey,
– Bogota..
I remember…

Tu nous manques déjà.
Condolences to your family
Jean-Daniel

[Pierre Rochette]

Salut René
Whenever I think about « The Good Old Days” in Wireline, your joyful face comes up to my memory.
Two years together as log analysts at Clamart gave birth to our solid bonding and friendship. With your natural charisma you acted as the CLIC entertainment leader. Always bringing life and fun in cocktails. You enjoyed tricking your companions with your talented voice imitation.
You were the perfect image of the Field Engineer the company wished to recruit: dedicated, hard working, mixing humour and professionalism. The right profile to become Alliance president, being the organiser of the successful Cannes reunion.
Adieu mon ami
Pierre

[Jean-Phillippe Lemoine]

A very nice fellow, always smiling, friend to every one, we met several time during our African period.he was Life
Jean-Philippe Lemoine

[ASLB Webadmin]

My prayers are with Rene’s family as they lay Rene to rest.

May the angels be watching over him.

A very hard time to celebrate someone’s life as Covid-19 grips the world but I know Rene will be thought of fondly.

Toast Rene on my behalf & say a prayer for him.

God bless,
George Coutts
Dowell Schlumberger 1971-1992

[ASLB Webadmin]

Sorry to hear the sad news, we pray to Almighty to grant eternal peace to departed sould. Kindly accept our condolence and convey the same.

Regards,
Hassan Keshwani

[ASLB Webadmin]

It’s really very sad news. Rene will always be remembered among us. RIP Rene. It’s a very sad situation for the whole family.

Riaz Razi

[ASLB Webadmin]

From Jean Louis Droulers
Sorry to hear about René; my sincere condolences to his daughter and family. In 1969 after I took over as Region Manager in the Middle East, René was one of the first field engineers I interviewed, he was on his way to vacation, coming off Iavan Island in Iran. He did not want to come back to the Middle East. After hearing him about the bad situation in Iavan I told him that I was planning to visit all the offshore locations and fix some of the urgent problems, he told me that he trusted me and my plan and that he was willing to come back. He did come back and managed successfully a base in Abudabi, we became good friends. I always enjoyed meeting him in the ALLIANCE reunions where he was involved. René was a gentleman with a very pleasant personality.
Adieux René.

[ASLB Webadmin]

René Heyte all our mourning
Ernest & Didie Collet

[ASLB Webadmin]

My heart felt condolences to Rene Heyte and may he rest in peace with God alone and may Almighty comfort his family and loved ones for He heals the broken hearted and binds up their wounds.

Allan Phillips

[ASLB Webadmin]

Please accept our most heartfelt sympathies for your loss. Our thoughts are with you and your family during this difficult time.

Tariq Hanif

[ASLB Webadmin]

Adieu! très cher René,

Tu nous a quitté si vite sans me rendre compte que c’était si proche ton départ!

La veille de ton départ nous avons encore eu contacte par émail!

Jusqu’au dernier moment tu étais si lucide de te rendre compte que je t’avais envoyé la photo de ton chat “Sha” par erreur! Je reste dans l’ingnorance si tu as bien recu la photo du chat de Philippe! fils ainée de Willy.

René tu restera dans notre mémoire comme un homme galant ,gaie, avec une joie de vivre, tu va nous manquer énormément!! Les réunions de Schlum ne seront plus comme avant sans toi!

Nos condoléances à toute ta famille! Olivier, Nicolas et Philippe dont tu étais si fier!

Willy et Edith Claes

[ASLB Webadmin]

I am sure there will be numerous comments about Rene but for once I lack the words – all I do is sit here and cry my eyes out. My heart goes out to his family – he was indeed one in a million – I remember his great sense of humour and have no doubts that he will bring laughter to paradise.
Hile A. Moore

[Harry Roberts]

Farewell ‘Vieux Garcon’ (as he liked to address his English friends) – I have many great memories of Rene – Here are two – Libya desert 1967 during the Arab-Israeli conflict – his joie de vivre and his repertoire of bawdy French songs – Clamart/Paris early 70’s – his take off over the telephone to unsuspecting colleagues of Bruno Berthelin the then personel manager (and also ALLIANCE founder). Rene was a great guy to be around.

[Rene Dattola]

j’ ai revu René à la réunion Schlumberger à Berlin.Nous avons longuement parlé de notre ami Yves Arexy. René a comme toujours exprimé l’attachement qu’il avait pour tous ses amis.
Il restera pour nous un ami qui ne peut être oublié;
Toutes mes condoléances à sa famille
René Dattola

[Louis Morin]

RIP Brother
Simonne and I will miss you René , your smile , your “joie de vivre ” your jokes and funny stories which have enlightened our Alliance gatherings for the past two decades and altogether 48 years of friendship and happy memories .
No doubt you will bring fun and joy in Paradise .
Our condolences and all our thoughs of sympathy to his children and family .

Simonne & Louis Morin

[Adeyemi Esan]

Rene , Rest In Peace . You were liked and loved by Warri Wireline Staff in 1976/77 while you were District Manager . Our path first crossed in Paris in 1980/81 as a friendly and transparent person having lived in Nigeria.
You will be missed and God will console and comfort your immediate family .
RIP Rene . Yemi & Kate Esan

[ASLB Webadmin]

In 1967 when Libya was still a kingdom Rene and I were two young engineers far down in the desert. I clearly remember the two long days and nights during the ‘Seven Day War’ when we were called to a remote logging job for Shell. All our workers had left us for the hoped for victory celebrations in Tripoli, a thousand kilometres away. So we did the job all by ourselves! And reminded each other ever after that we had never worked so hard again, cursed so much and slept so well!
I shall always remember the dashing, young Frenchman, Rene.
Gerhard Scholz.

[James (Jim) Logar]

Another of the greats of the Schlumberger of my life. Rene greeted me in 1973 and we worked together in Clamart a suburb of the great city of Paris. Rene later greeted us at the Alliance meetings with his natural warmness and good spirit. I will miss his FB posts. We send our our condolences to his family. Rest in Peace Rene.
Jim and Inge Logar` <li></li>
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[Martin Gledhill]

Rene was one of the all time great guys you could work with in Schlumberger. In 1980 I was fortunate enough to have Rene as manager of the first group working in China. There were many frustrations and difficulties, but Rene was invariably cool and calm, with a great sense of humour. Nothing could get on top of him and he always gave us 100% support.

China in 1980 was quite different to how it is now, any treats had to be brought in. We had a fridge stocked with cheese, including a Pont l’Évêque of unknown vintage that no-one wanted to touch, let alone eat. The smell alone was enough to make you think twice about opening the fridge. But Rene, being a true Frenchman, came back after some time off, wolfed down a large portion of it and declared it to be in excellent condition.

Rene’s natural optimism saw him through all the difficulties that life could throw at him and although in June this year he did confess to being “a bit fed up with all the medical care and exams I’ve had in the past three years” he was still optimistic and making plans for the future. At one time he jokingly mused about starting a new religion as a way to make a comfortable living: there seemed to be no end of people ready to give money to someone who claimed to understand the meaning of life. Maybe he should have done that: we could do with a lot more people sharing Rene’s approach to life.

[Martin Gledhill]

Rene and the crew on the first land China job.

[Patrick Vandenabeele]

Nous nous sommes souvent croisés et ensuite étions ensemble au bureau d’Alliance. Ce dont je me souviens, c’est son sourire, sa gentillesse, son écoute des autres,etc. Et bien sûr, son humour.
Toutes mes condoléances à toute sa famille.

[ASLB Webadmin]

Thank you for keeping me informed, unfortunately, of the death of René Heyte. I am sadly surprised even if I didn’t know him as a close friend. But after my husband’s death, Yves, he sent me a mail saying he could help for anything if necessary. What I much appreciated. During the Alliance reunion in Chester I remember he said to me that he was optimistic about his health after a medical operation. And the following year, in Bordeaux, I found him quite well.
Surely I’ll keep a pleasant memory of René.
Arlette Barré

[ASLB Webadmin]

Triste nouvelle.
My condoléances to Rene’s family. Je me souviens, surtout, de René, en tant q’invité à un dîner à Warri au Nigeria il y’a bien longtemps. Un être avec un bon cœur, très humain et apprécié par tous. Sincèrement, Stuart McIntyre

[Jean-Francois Soum]

René Barcelone 2015. One for the road. Goodbye René.

[Horacio L. Sessarego]

Our deepest sympathies to René Heyte’s family in this time of grief.
Horacio and Cecilia Sessarego

[Eric Robinson]

I’m greatly saddened to learn of the passing of my dear colleague and friend Rene, whom I first had the pleasure of meeting at Paris HQ in the 70’s and then again, many years later, when he joined Alliance.
For me, Rene was really special – a true French ‘original’ – a larger-than-life person of genial and generous disposition who ALWAYS had time to chat over a beer about those good ol’ times in Big Blue – chats which usually lasted long into the night! Truly, there was never a dull moment whenever René was around and the world is now a sadder place without him. RIP René, we all miss you. Eric.

[ASLB Webadmin]

To Rene
You were a constant at the many Alliance Reunions we attended, friendly, smiling, welcoming, dependable. In later years, when you were obviously suffering from ill health, you remained positive, engaging and encouraging us all. A personal ‘Thank you’, Rene, for all you did for the members of the Alliance, for being your cheerful self. You beamed a ray of warmth into our hearts.
John and Lieselotte Kirwan.

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