Marcus at Work
I first met Marcus thirty years ago, when both he and I came to work at Nailsea.
As Manufacturing manager, I was responsible for the construction & assembly of our subsea control systems whilst Marcus as a QA engineer in the Quality department was responsible for ensuring the equipment which we made complied with all the drawings and specifications. He would inspect it, witness us testing it, and, hopefully, ‘sign it off’ as having passed.
The systems were complex bits of kit which sat on the sea bed, controlling the extraction of Oil & Gas from wells beneath the sea bed.
Sometimes during the testing there would be an issue or something not quite to spec. Unlike many others in his department, Marcus would always work with us in manufacturing to resolve any issue, making suggestions as to how or what could be done in order for him to pass it off.
Marcus was very much a can-do man. His attitude very much appreciated.
Growth of the business
After a couple of years, I was appointed manager of the QA department.
Marcus was now a member of my team. I was his boss!
The Oil & Gas business grew and flourished, and was bought by ABB.
Fabrication of sub-assemblies were subcontracted to specialist manufactures across the UK.
Marcus was now a key QA engineer. He spent more and more time on the road visiting subcontractor factories, witnessing and ‘signing-off’ their product before it was shipped to Nailsea.
He was a great ambassador for the company, always the gentleman, never confrontational, always working with subcontractors to resolve any issues.
But Marcus was no fool. You could not pull the wool over his eyes. If the product was not to specification, he would say so.
Example
On one visit to a certain subcontractor Marcus was dismayed to find that their fabrication was far from being up to spec, and he explained his concerns to the contractor. As it was near to lunch time they said to Marcus ‘let’s adjourn to a restaurant for lunch and talk over the issues. On arriving at the restaurant one of the contractor’s team asked Marcus what he would like to drink.
I never drink during the working day, Marcus replied.
Well, that didn’t work, Marcus over heard one of the contractors say!
Leeds
On one occasion we had a fabrication that needed urgent modification. Marcus called the company who manufactured this item for us, A J Taylors in Leeds, requesting their help. They said they were incredibly busy but if we could get the fabrication to them by 7:30 am the following morning they would see what they could do.
No problem for Marcus. At 4 am the next morning he left the Nailsea factory with the unit strapped to our flat-bed truck and drove it up to Leeds. On arrival at 7:30 am Taylors got to work on it. But rather than sitting around all day waiting for the job to be completed, Marcus offered his assistance to them, and using our flat-bed truck delivered and collected various items from around Leeds for them
Russell Greenwood
This particular company, like many others, thought highly of Marcus.
On learning of Marcus’s death, Russell Greenwood of A J Taylors wrote to Sparky; included in his note were these words…
From the very first minute I knew Marcus was an exceptional engineer and a true gentleman and had an aura about him that made me feel calm and comfortable around him….
And:
Marcus was a calm and collective engineer and helped us out on many an occasion as he had the ability to resolve issues with minimum fuss…
Switzerland
I recall another occasion, one weekend. We had an urgent need to get a precision component to Switzerland to get it checked out. I called Marcus on his mobile thinking he was at home to see if he could hand carry it to Switzerland, only to find him taking the call at Southampton. He was there with Sparky.
Again, no problem for Marcus. Very early the next day, a Monday, Marcus drove to Heathrow airport, flew to Switzerland, stayed all day, and arrived back home about 11pm, job successfully done.
A day later Sparky received a large bouquet of flowers from our Managing Director, Peter Hewlett with a note saying how much he appreciated Marcus’s efforts and commitment. Sparky was very touched by this gesture. But Peter Hewlett knew that Marcus’s work commitment was in no small part down to Sparky’s 100% support of Marcus.
Community Bus
Outside of work Marcus had a spare time occupation - coach driving, as if he didn’t get enough driving in his day job!
He was involved with the community transport scheme as a driver, occasional problem fixer and as part of the management team.
Also, having gained a public service vehicle licence many years before coming to Nailsea, he joined PS Travel in the early days of their coach holiday business and was a great asset to them as a part time driver.
On reaching the age of 75 Marcus decided that enough was enough and finally retired!
Conclusion
There is so much more I could say about Marcus at work; but a fitting way to conclude is to read a note sent to Sparky from Peter Handley, the managing director until his retirement a few years ago, of Swiftool Engineering, based in Nottinghamshire.
Swiftool is a very successful company supplying Precision Engineered equipment to a global customer base, and thanks to the good work of Marcus, through his many visits, Swiftool became a key subcontractor to ABB.
Peter Handley writes:
Both Anne and I were deeply saddened to learn of Marcus passing away.
I first met him in the early two thousand and very soon developed a wonderful working relationship with him, nothing was too much trouble, be it advice or hands on help, even driving over half way up the motorway to help us deliver parts on time.
Never heard him say a bad word against anyone or heard a bad word against him.
I was aware of his various activities within the community through general conversation rather than him seeking recognition.
It was a privilege to have known and worked with him and a greater privilege that he considered both Anne and I as friends.
Rest in Peace dear Marcus.
Bryn Jones
