The Penn Brad Oil Museum will hold its annual Yellow Dog Award dinner, honoring Susan Gibson Perry and Sherri Huston Schulze for their many years of service. 

The dinner will be held at 6 p.m. Saturday at The Bradford Club.

The Yellow Dog Award was instituted by museum founder Jim Bryner to honor leadership and dedication in preserving the history of the Bradford Oil Field and the unique culture that developed with it. 

A “yellow dog” is a two-spouted lantern that, invented in Pennsylvania by Jonathan Dillen in 1870, burns crude petroleum straight from the ground.

Perry served the museum as president and treasurer for many years, while Schulze served as the museum curator and docent. 

Both of the women are extremely well versed in Bradford oil field history, and together they have organized and classified the entire collection of exhibits at the museum. During difficult times at the museum, Perry and Schulze worked tirelessly to ensure the sustainability of the museum and its collections.

Perry is the granddaughter of J. Harvey Gibson of J.H. Gibson Oil Co. and has five generations of family involved with the Pennsylvania oil industry. “I learned about the oil business from listening to my father and uncle,” she said in a press release.

Perry first became associated with the Penn Brad Oil Museum in 1995, doing cataloguing and acquisitions. She then became treasurer in 1999 and served as president of the museum between 2003 and 2014.

Meanwhile, Schulze is the daughter of Carl Huston, an excavator in the oil fields, and she, too, has five generations of family in the Pennsylvania oil industry — including Robert H. Childs, part of the group of Kendall Refining Co. founders: Childs, Willis and Loomis.

She started working at the museum in 2000, when she came to research Robert Childs and Jim Bryner. Those at the museum were impressed with her knowledge and she was offered a job, which she kept until 2010.

The two women were born in Bradford and graduated from Bradford Area High School.

Museum manager Sam Slocum said Perry and Schulze have been instrumental in garnering community support for the museum and took on many projects to improve the museum.

“They’ve been many, many years here, and they are pretty much responsible for the way the museum is right now,” Slocum stated. “Sherri did many different projects, probably the biggest one is (the compilation of) five huge notebooks of patent applications from the patent office in Washington, D.C., for inventions for use in the oil fields.”

Slocum said Schulze made the books herself and added them to the museum’s library for research. He noted Perry has also worked extensively on the genealogy of local people in the oil industry. 

Schulze and Perry were not available for comment by press time Monday night.

Slocum said this is the first time the award has been given in quite a while — and the first time two people have been awarded simultaneously.

“I think a lot of these were given out unceremoniously starting in the early 70s. This is the first revival of that with a ceremony,” Slocum said. “This is the first time we’ve really come out with nice trophies. They’ll be glass with picture of a yellow dog.”

“The reason we did two — they worked together for many years and we saw it as fitting that they be awarded together. We couldn’t imagine awarding one without the other at the same time,” Slocum said. “They have both equally, in their own way, contributed to the museum.”

Harvey Golubock, who heads up the Yellow Dog Award Committee and is the former chief executive officer of American Refining Group, said he is proud to be able to acknowledge the women for all the work they’ve done for the museum over the years.

“(Susan and Sherri) just did everything, and now we’re delighted to be able to honor them,” said Golubock, who will also serve as the event’s master of ceremonies.

“The award was started by Jim Bryner, the founder of the museum; and it was supposed to be given annually, but we haven’t really done very much over the last few years,” he explained. “We want to make this an important award for the recipients and as a fundraiser for the museum, raising awareness of the museum and preserving the oil and gas history.”

For more information, contact Slocum at 814-362-1955.