25-year service awards and farewells

By: Philip Bannerman & Shaun Gallighan

In September we welcomed several colleagues in the United States and Canada to the Radio Holland Veterans Club. You may know that the Radio Holland Veterans Club emerged from a group called the Marconi Veterans Committee  whose origins stretch back to the early 1900s. The definition of a Marconi veteran was specified as someone with “a total of 25 years of service with one or more of the companies in the Marconi Group, or elsewhere in the interest of that group”.     In Houston, one of our existing veterans club inductees, Rich Beattie (QHSE ＆ Regulatory Manager), presented Jeff Bigler (Business Systems Manager), Johnny Hamby (Warehouse Manager), Joe Sustaita (Buyer) and Marty Powell (Regional Service Manager) with their Veterans Club pins.

North of the border in Canada, both Stewart Furness (Technical Manager) and Darren Hamaoki (Service Manager) joined the RH Veteran ranks, which was celebrated in Vancouver. In addition to joining the veterans club, Stewart retired at the end of September after 28 years of service with Radio Holland. We wish Stewart all the best and hope he enjoys his well-earned retirement!

Stewart receiving his retirement gifts: RH cufflinks and an antique compass!

From left: Stewart Furness (Technical Manager) and Darren Hamaoki (Service Manager).

In addition, 3 further colleagues in the US joined the veterans club. All ‘new’ veterans received their special veteran pins! Congratulations to: Johan de Kruif (Service Engineer, New Jersey), Arjan Niemeijer (Service Engineer, Fort Lauderdale) and William (Bill) Bonner (Service Engineer, Virginia).

Philip Bannerman, Regional Director Americas, is grateful for the dedication and loyalty shown by our colleagues. “In today’s society where it is normal to work for many different employers over a career, it was a great pleasure to welcome these loyal colleagues to the Radio Holland Veterans Club. I hope when they reflect back on their long careers with Radio Holland, they look back fondly – not on the number of vessels attended, purchase orders made or service reports written – but rather the places they visited, the people they met and the laughs they shared.

I would like to add a particular thanks to Stewart Furness who has retired after 28 years. Stewart was instrumental in building our successful and profitable Canadian business and we will miss his wisdom in the Vancouver office.“