I was always a reluctant student 25 10 24
Take for example my attitude at 7 the age most boys at Eton already know they are destined for Prime Ministerships when all I ever wished to do was play out with my like-minded soul mates! When repeated beatings with a 12 inch ruler across the knuckles of each hand did little to encourage us to be more diligent students!!
Then age 10 still getting 2 out of 30 for spelling, my mate Brian only getting 1 or 0, since his position in class was 32nd, the bottom, while I was a close 2nd, in 31st place!!!
Nevertheless by the time I reached 13 I had passed the exam to follow my brother into the Junior Technical School where we were taught lots of subjects I didn't wish to spend the rest of my life doing, but when in the second or third terms I succeeded in becoming the class's star pupil, and never fell below what, a half way down the class in position..? Then after two years schooling when a third year was introduced so we too could take GCE O-levels (General Certificate of EducatÃon Ordinary level) exams, I decided to leave school and become a Laboratory Assistant in Industry, neither woodwork appealing wherein both my brother and Father shone, nor following my brother a second time into a career in Engineeering or Draughtmanship, in which I too for once also shone.
But miraculously starting on the bottom rung of the ladder in a Paper Manufacturing Plant, I would progress each step of the way up every rung until, never having to spend much time in learning except by doing the job at hand, and later after trying maybe 1/2 dozen different careers, and taking take time off to top up my 5 years of part-time Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics studies, with a two year course at University to an upper-second class honours level graduateship of the Royal Institute of Chemistry, a professional qalification.
But only after trying aged 26 to master the GCE O-level English Language examination to gain University entrance, the British Educational system so biased against late developers and ppl who see no logic in its language, full as it is of exceptions, breeding instead a teaching profession in which one got to be instructed by more than the odd sadist, bereft of deeper understanding. My good fortune, albeit aged 26, getting a lecturer who saw my lack of confidence, and how it was acquired in large measure from such colleagues in my childhood years say aged 7 through 11?
Thereafter through various false starts from the position of Laboratory Assistant still aged 25, becoming a Project Leader (turning down a Senior Project Leadership to top up my Chemistry studies) to become in turn a Researcher in a Wood Products Company, once graduated, then a Section Leader at a Cellophane Manufacturing Plant, a Research and Development Manager, aged 35, in arguably the most versatile British Paper and Wetlaid Nonwoven Group comprising 3 manufacturing sites. Finally, after 13 years, an R and D Directorship if only for a 4 year contract, of a Fibrous Cellulosic Casing Manufacturer, a customer I had been visiting 10 years, wherein all my previous industrial experiences proved to be of relevance, seeing me through to my 50's and into my 60's with a reduced standing if not so much reduced responsibility.
My initiative to use lighter weights of paper substrates gave the Company World Patent Rights for these products, despite attacks by the biggest competitors in the Opposition Division of the European Patent Office and elsewhere.
Serving the company in an International Committee of Producers 20 years, proposed by the European Union's principal Food Scientist, to regulate the Industry's use of chemicals in Food Contact applications, and their safe handling practices, for the vulnerable Plant Opereratives, during product manufacture.
As a follow-on once my term of directorship expired, staying on in the company to represent both Company and Country in the Court of International Trade in New York, in an action against US Customs to have Fibrous Casings returned from the Plastics to the Paper Chapter, with the return of the excessive customs duty incurred during their period of being wrongly so defined, over a number of years.
And finally serving the International Committeee as its Chairperson for 5 years, and President for two, towards the end of my working life after retirement aged 65, when I became a Management Consultant to complete the Patent Disputes I was engaged in fighting, and when the Committee commissioned me to write the first draft of the Guide to Good Manufacturing Practice for the Industry.
Only now in my old age can I see it for what it was: as learning anything and storing the information in my head, was only ever about making a living: my chemistry courses taught me how to work out how reactions would proceed, without the necessity of remembering them all, as of rote: as Research and Development Manager my first major task was to commission a newly modified Production Paper Machine, converted for Wet-laid Non-woven Fabric manufacture, using first a Pilot Plant Paper and Non-woven Machine, in its department of Research and Development wherein I got to train many of the Company's up and coming senior managers.
Joining the Board of the Finnish Company manufacturing Fibrous Cellulosic Food Casing was one last step to servicing the bigger industry after being a Paper Supplier for most of the 13 years I served the greater customer base of most of the world's manufacturers, wherein I acquired my specialist's knowledge.
So nice to spend one's life learning new things without the need to store everything of importance in one's head, so long as one continued to do the necessary, and for much of the time succeeding in the company of a mix of different cultures ranging from American, Belgian, British, Finnish, French, German and Spanish, lol.
N.B. Much of the history herein related is repeated elswhere in my blogs and some of which fairly recently but please bear with me putting across what one did in one's career without the need to store a good deal of useless information was my main thrust...re-reading it just now as I hit the publish button left me wondering whether it will be so popular???
Then age 10 still getting 2 out of 30 for spelling, my mate Brian only getting 1 or 0, since his position in class was 32nd, the bottom, while I was a close 2nd, in 31st place!!!
Nevertheless by the time I reached 13 I had passed the exam to follow my brother into the Junior Technical School where we were taught lots of subjects I didn't wish to spend the rest of my life doing, but when in the second or third terms I succeeded in becoming the class's star pupil, and never fell below what, a half way down the class in position..? Then after two years schooling when a third year was introduced so we too could take GCE O-levels (General Certificate of EducatÃon Ordinary level) exams, I decided to leave school and become a Laboratory Assistant in Industry, neither woodwork appealing wherein both my brother and Father shone, nor following my brother a second time into a career in Engineeering or Draughtmanship, in which I too for once also shone.
But miraculously starting on the bottom rung of the ladder in a Paper Manufacturing Plant, I would progress each step of the way up every rung until, never having to spend much time in learning except by doing the job at hand, and later after trying maybe 1/2 dozen different careers, and taking take time off to top up my 5 years of part-time Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics studies, with a two year course at University to an upper-second class honours level graduateship of the Royal Institute of Chemistry, a professional qalification.
But only after trying aged 26 to master the GCE O-level English Language examination to gain University entrance, the British Educational system so biased against late developers and ppl who see no logic in its language, full as it is of exceptions, breeding instead a teaching profession in which one got to be instructed by more than the odd sadist, bereft of deeper understanding. My good fortune, albeit aged 26, getting a lecturer who saw my lack of confidence, and how it was acquired in large measure from such colleagues in my childhood years say aged 7 through 11?
Thereafter through various false starts from the position of Laboratory Assistant still aged 25, becoming a Project Leader (turning down a Senior Project Leadership to top up my Chemistry studies) to become in turn a Researcher in a Wood Products Company, once graduated, then a Section Leader at a Cellophane Manufacturing Plant, a Research and Development Manager, aged 35, in arguably the most versatile British Paper and Wetlaid Nonwoven Group comprising 3 manufacturing sites. Finally, after 13 years, an R and D Directorship if only for a 4 year contract, of a Fibrous Cellulosic Casing Manufacturer, a customer I had been visiting 10 years, wherein all my previous industrial experiences proved to be of relevance, seeing me through to my 50's and into my 60's with a reduced standing if not so much reduced responsibility.
My initiative to use lighter weights of paper substrates gave the Company World Patent Rights for these products, despite attacks by the biggest competitors in the Opposition Division of the European Patent Office and elsewhere.
Serving the company in an International Committee of Producers 20 years, proposed by the European Union's principal Food Scientist, to regulate the Industry's use of chemicals in Food Contact applications, and their safe handling practices, for the vulnerable Plant Opereratives, during product manufacture.
As a follow-on once my term of directorship expired, staying on in the company to represent both Company and Country in the Court of International Trade in New York, in an action against US Customs to have Fibrous Casings returned from the Plastics to the Paper Chapter, with the return of the excessive customs duty incurred during their period of being wrongly so defined, over a number of years.
And finally serving the International Committeee as its Chairperson for 5 years, and President for two, towards the end of my working life after retirement aged 65, when I became a Management Consultant to complete the Patent Disputes I was engaged in fighting, and when the Committee commissioned me to write the first draft of the Guide to Good Manufacturing Practice for the Industry.
Only now in my old age can I see it for what it was: as learning anything and storing the information in my head, was only ever about making a living: my chemistry courses taught me how to work out how reactions would proceed, without the necessity of remembering them all, as of rote: as Research and Development Manager my first major task was to commission a newly modified Production Paper Machine, converted for Wet-laid Non-woven Fabric manufacture, using first a Pilot Plant Paper and Non-woven Machine, in its department of Research and Development wherein I got to train many of the Company's up and coming senior managers.
Joining the Board of the Finnish Company manufacturing Fibrous Cellulosic Food Casing was one last step to servicing the bigger industry after being a Paper Supplier for most of the 13 years I served the greater customer base of most of the world's manufacturers, wherein I acquired my specialist's knowledge.
So nice to spend one's life learning new things without the need to store everything of importance in one's head, so long as one continued to do the necessary, and for much of the time succeeding in the company of a mix of different cultures ranging from American, Belgian, British, Finnish, French, German and Spanish, lol.
N.B. Much of the history herein related is repeated elswhere in my blogs and some of which fairly recently but please bear with me putting across what one did in one's career without the need to store a good deal of useless information was my main thrust...re-reading it just now as I hit the publish button left me wondering whether it will be so popular???
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