All Great People Have to Retire Sometime

Retirement comes to all of us at sometime or another as we make the move to doing less and allowing younger people to move up in the company. And it is time now for an old friend of mine, John Harris of Stewart & Harris Structural Engineers, to spend more time with Pat and the family and put down the slide rule and beam size tables.

John has not only been a great structural engineer, he has been an engineer that understands the demolition industry and what we do, and that makes our life easier.

My memories of John's working life are when we had Redditch Shopping Centre sitting on massive props to remove a central lift shaft and car park areas whilst allowing artic wagons to continue to use the ramps! We both had a few sleepless nights on that job.

A great personal memory is at my wedding to Jill. At around midnight, Pat had retired to bed leaving John standing at the bar telling people that he was, in fact, a juggler and would proceed to juggle 8 CD cases in a few minutes, but he had to "limber up" first by drinking another beer. He managed to keep them all entertained and waiting for the juggling to start for over 2 hours until he finally confessed that he had never juggled in his life and he was off to bed!

Recently John has joined me on training days for Thomas Vale and CMR Demolition, and Roy Brown and myself on the NDTG Manager Course Day 4 to discuss how buildings behave structurally under demolition where his wit and personality shines through.

I will miss calling him to discuss jobs (I will just call John Stewart instead now), but when I call in future it will be to arrange a meeting for a beer and a chat. However, knowing John as I do, that beer will extend to 5 or more and we will spend most of the night laughing.

I hope that you enjoy your retirement John, and we end this piece with John's own statement as to why he is "hanging up his slide rule":

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Dear Friend or Client, which in many cases is one and the same, I am pleased to announce after over 40 years of being associated with the construction industry, 31 years of which have been with Stewart and Harris, I am to retire at the end of July with Pat’s approval and the full support of the two John’s.

I will be retained as a consultant to assist with the continuance of client contact and relationships generally. The decision is a strategic one and one which will enable Stewart and Harris to develop further and to plan the company’s succession.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my career but realise there are times when you have to ‘let go’. I can you assure you Stewart and Harris are in a strong position in the market place and I have every confidence they will remain there. Every effort will be made to ensure the transition is smooth and that our high standards are maintained.

I would have liked to thank you personally, but I am sure you appreciate that is not really practical. However, I will endeavour to make contact over the coming months.

To close, I would like to thank you for your support over the years and the confidence you have shown in Stewart and Harris and wish you the best of health to enjoy the future.