The great survivor takes retirement on his own terms
Tony Seaman, retiring from Hayward Tyler in Luton
QUALITY control manager Tony Seaman is calling time on a 53 year career in engineering that has taken him around the world... even meeting Miss World in 1994.
But even though he has seen many places in a career in engineering, when Mr Seaman, 68, steps away from pump maker Hayward Tyler in Kimpton Road on Monday (October 8) he intends to stay in the town he loves.
“I love Luton, I don’t think I could ever leave,” said married father-of-two Mr Seaman, of Turnpike Drive, who is hoping to be a first time granddad very soon. “I thought I would retire somewhere else but with family around I’ll probably live out the rest of my life here.”
Hatters’ fan Mr Seaman has worked at many of Luton’s iconic businesses, including George Kent’s where he joined as an apprentice toolmaker at age 15 and Electrolux as a junior design draughtsman.
After a course at Hatfield Polytechnic, he became a lecturer at Dunstable College and himself became qualified in quality assurance. But his heart remained in engineering and he joined Trewax, in Cradock Road before the recession of the late 1980s struck and he was made redundant.
But he’d become qualified in management and he soon found work with Denge Power Projects in Milton Keynes. The job involved travel around the world and on one visit to India he met Aishwarya Rai, the then Miss World, who became a Bollywood superstar. He was even on a plane in Africa when it was comandeered by Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe.
Redundancy – and witnessing the after effects of the massive oil depot explosion at Buncefield in Hemel Hempstead – struck twice more before he joined Hayward Tyler at the age of 63. He helped to revamp the company’s systems at a time when its quality certification was at risk. Loss of the certification may have meant serious problems in continuing to trade.
His advice to others in battling for jobs in today’s employment market is to never doubt your own ability and never stop learning and adding skills.
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Weather for Luton
Saturday 18 May 2013
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Temperature: 6 C to 14 C
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