There is a manufacturing technician at my work who I would call a master-level professional.

My man Bob R.

He’s had quite the life, as much as I know about him. He’s in his mid 70’s I’d guess. He’s been at my company nearly its whole existence, twenty years or so.

The other day I was sitting on the forklift in the warehouse when he walked through from the manufacturing floor. He shared a quick story.

He said casually with a wry smile on his face, “…oh yea, I used to build these things back in the day…”, pointing to the forklift. So the story went,

His dad worked at a company in Oakland that built forklifts. From scratch. Machined / welded / assembled the pieces parts that transformed to a massive machine that could lift very heavy things.

When Bob was a young man he went to work there too. This was in the 1960’s. Bob did some welding among other things. He mentioned catching fire from the welding work three times while under the assemblies as they built them. Fortunately he was never badly injured as a result.

I guess OSHA wasn’t as strong back then.

My collaboration with Bob has all been around his work as an assembly technician building one precision sub-assembly that’s used in the instruments my company builds. I’m not very mechanical, but I have a ton of respect and admiration for the professionalism Bob displays in every aspect of his work. In my humble opinion he is indeed a master craftsman.

My man, Bob R.