A Fond Farewell
10/05/2012
When he started working at 15 years old, Dessie had no idea he would end up working in Oxfordshire. In Scotland his early career was tough, with three redundancies under his belt by the time he was 25. Then he saw that Central Electricity Generating Board was looking for maintenance fitters for their Didcot power station, so in 1972 he moved south.
After his time at the power station, Dessie joined the team at Milton Park where he quickly gained a reputation amongst the occupiers as the ‘man who can’. His engaging charm and ability to solve any day-to-day maintenance dramas has given Dessie celebrity status on the Park.
His base has moved three times, he still regularly chases the foxes away from the bins and he once found an abandoned X-ray plate but even when asked to put perfectly good bottles of whiskey in the bin, Dessie has always provided whatever help was needed.These days Dessie often meets the grandchildren of his peers from his power station days and these grandchildren are now working at Milton Park.
His routine of working through the managed units and providing ad hoc assistance as and when needed means he get to say hello to many of our occupiers, which has been his favourite part of the job. When we asked him what he would miss, he said the people (and the very early morning starts!) whilst he is looking forward to spending more time with his own grandchildren and his wife, who retired three years ago.And even though he is retiring from Milton Park, he will still be a councillor in Didcot for further three years and he promises to pop in for the odd visit, although he says he will bring his own teabags!
Dessie – we wish you well and thanks for all your help!
