Thank you for thirty years of measuring dust in a baggie

The title of the blog paraphrases a Billy Strings song and check out the dude in the green pants! This should also lead you to Mollie Tuttle. After that musical interlude, you may be in a good mood to read my heartfelt thank you to all of you, especially those that organized the interview with Paul Kippax, the retirement video, and the amazing Amazon gift card. I will name some of you shortly! Apologies if I don’t get everyone correctly named as there are so many of you over 30 years… This note has taken me too long to compose because there are so many of you to thank – please don’t feel that this delay is because I am ungrateful. It’s totally the opposite and I feel completely overwhelmed with all of this ‘retirement’ activity.

It’s been a privilege and honor to work with the Malvern Panalytical team over 30 years of full-time employment (yes, working for Malvern did feel like a full-time job at times). I feel a little bit of fraud now as the bond has not been completely severed and I’ll be around for 2 – 3 days/week assisting the company with anything that is business-beneficial (short-term/long term; direct/indirect). Hopefully, I’ll be a helpful ghost in the background and not haunting you…

I know that there was a huge number of people involved in the 30-year interview slot. In particular, Steve Ward-Smith, Lisa Newey-Keane, Linda Bratica, and Michel Bosma plus Paul Kippax himself of course, who had carefully planned the questioning (made it easy for me to answer) went the extra kilometer and devoted their time to make me look professional!  The interview video obviously took some organization and coordination and I suspect (but do not know) a large involvement of Fred Mazzeo plus other marketing team people (Kathy Macchiarola, Linda Bratica, Tom Guenette?). Tracking down old friends and colleagues over the entire planet obviously took a lot of work. I’d like to name and thank all of those that said wonderful things about me (all untrue I say!) especially those that I worked with prior to my move to the US in 2003 – I must have given you something to remember! I’ve looked through the video and in order I thank (your time will come!): Claudia Mujat, Sean Quilty, Kathy Macchiarola, Steve Ward-Smith, Franco Polchi, Edna Alvarez, The McDonagh’s: Tony, Penny, Bryn, plus Peter Davis, Glen Blackstock, Tina Rowney, Maria Lightfoot, Linda Bratica, Ulf Nobbmann, Fred Mazzeo, Thomas Linsinger, Tom Guenette, Joe Wolfgang, Jane Bishop, Kyle Butz, Mike Kaszuba, Wolfgang Witt, Debbie Huck-Jones, Dave Peisel, Kyle Williams, Julie Chen, Intrumat – Francois Maystre, Dave Dolak, and Ulrich Köhler.

A number of the list have left the company or were part of our distributor network or even are working for competitors or other organizations! That really says something about my many and wide interactions with you all over those years. I hope to thank you each personally over the coming weeks – indeed I’m in contact with many on my personal email as well. There were a bunch of innovative marketing clips in the video (reminded me of the Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In (one to Google for those under 60 plus!) Joke-Wall… Especially Ulrich Köhler’s (I hope he and Wolfgang Witt are able to see the video too) and Dave Dolak’s contributions spring to immediate mind.

The Amazon gift token was unexpected, and I dearly thank all that contributed. I will look for a good charitable cause to use this with. 

Our friend Lisa van Dusen drew the cartoon below – some say it’s a good likeness. Perhaps too good…

Again, my apologies to all those friends and colleagues who I’ve omitted mentioning. It has been and still is, a remarkable and entertaining journey…

Some of you have asked what I’ll be doing in retirement (other than part-time Malvern Panalytical activities). I should direct this question to my Events Manager/Social Secretary… The birdwatching activity is clearly the big one and we’d be hoping, in post-Covid days, to get to some warmer climes in 2021. I’ve also regressed – I was a child only once but can be immature all my life… I’ve reactivated my stamp albums after 50+ years as now I can spend time (and $’s!) in completing my specialist collection – Straits Settlements and Malay States (1847 – 1967), if you must know… And, in theory, there is an end point to the collecting – bankruptcy?