Owners of Local Rock Haven Create Fund to Honor Founder

Brothers David and Phillip Pomberg grew up in the Rock Barrell, a shop founded in 1972 by their parents, Earl and Shirley Pomberg. Long a staple in the local geoscience community, the Richardson, Texas, store has been serving customers for decades. Before Earl passed away in 2023, he and his family established a research fund in his name at The University of Texas at Dallas to support the North Texas geoscience community he loved.

“When our father left the Navy, he attended trade school to become a draftsman and then got a job at Texas Instruments, which is what brought us to North Texas,” David said. “But he always spent his weekends figuring out other ways to make a living. At the time, there was a growing obsession with people buying rocks, and he capitalized off that at his stall at the local flea market.”

Earl, who eventually saved up enough money for a brick-and-mortar store, entered the geoscience world as an entrepreneur, and his passion for rocks developed quickly. What started off as selling seashells and stones turned into traveling to foreign countries to buy inventory and befriending customers as unique as himself.

“As he grew in both the business and the rock worlds, he started to foster a friendship with the late Dr. James Carter,” David said. “He came over to the store a lot, and I’d always hear them laughing and telling each other stories for hours. I think it’s neat that my dad, who didn’t have a lot of ‘formal’ education could be friends with an esteemed professor who had such an extraordinary impact on UTD.”

When Earl passed away, David says his absence was felt by hundreds of customers, friends, business partners and other community members. He believes his father will forever be remembered for his wisdom, fairness and willingness to share his knowledge with anyone who cared to ask, as well as his sentiments about the importance of education.

“[My father] had this understanding that even though he didn’t experience college, he could still be smart and learn,” David said. “He was fond of saying ‘the great thing about education is once you have it, nobody can take it away from you.’”

David, his wife, Jerri Hammer MS’97, and Phillip created the Earl H. Pomberg Research Fund to benefit the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. Their goal is to provide aid wherever is needed and honor Earl by investing in newer members of the local geoscience community.

Dr. David Hyndman, dean of the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and the Francis S. and Maurine G. Johnson Distinguished University Chair, has over 30 years of experience in the geosciences field. He says he is incredibly grateful for the support of the Pomberg family.

“The Pombergs have been friends of the geosciences at UT Dallas for a long time,” Hyndman said. “Their generous support has the potential to provide transformative research opportunities to our students and faculty. This kind of gift makes such a difference for our school.”

Recently, the fund supported student participation in field camps, where participants gained formative in-field knowledge and hands-on experience.

“I often think about how my father never had the opportunity to go to college because he never had the money to do so. And as he started to get money, he couldn’t go then because he had a family to take care of,” David said. “Having this [research fund] money is one less worry for a student, and they can focus on the discovery, research and learning parts to college.”