In the winter of 1965-66 I was assigned to support the final stages of the installation of coal-fired power plant project at the Orange and Rockland Utilities on the banks of the Hudson River. I worked under the guidance of Pete, the senior service engineer heading up the project for Foster Wheeler. I experienced on this assignment numerous turning points. (Refer to “It doesn’t Work – Fix It” post)
One cold, raw and blistery winter weekend a series of tragic events took place. The consequences of what happened that weekend were revealed on Monday morning.
Our team of service engineers had arrived at the company trailer office and we began sharing our weekend exploits over our morning coffee. Suddenly the office door opened and in walked Bill, the senior vice president. He was a very personable man with a smile that put you at ease and a demeanor that garnered great respect.
William “Bill” D. Stevens
We all knew something was very wrong that morning just by the look on his face. Bill explained that Pete had suffered the loss of his wife and father over the weekend. Both had died unexpectedly. The shock of this sad news hit all of us very hard. Pete was loved and respected by all of us not only as our leader but because he was such a great person and teacher.
As the initial shock subsided, Bill told us that Pete would not be coming back to the job. Pete had requested an assignment in Japan where he had previously worked for the company some years before.
Bill asked each of us what we were working on and after our report asked each of the team to carry on except for me. He asked me to show him around the plant.
Bill and I left the trailer and headed toward the plant. Once we were out of sight of the rest of the team, Bill stopped and said to me, “Allan, I don’t need a tour, I designed this boiler. I wanted to get you alone because I want you to manage this project.”
I responded, “Do you realize, sir, that I am still on my training program and all of the others have seniority on me?”
He said, “You may be on our training program, but when you woke up this morning, you were a senior service engineer. And you have a retroactive pay raise accordingly. I want you to manage this project because I trust you.”
I told him I accepted and promised to do my best. Bill told me that if any of the team members gave me a hard time, I should let him know and he would support me.
Over the next weeks I enjoyed the full support of the rest of the team save for one. He resisted my promotion and leadership. I did my best to win over his support, but he dug his feet in and attempted to sabotage my work. I felt the need to respond as Bill had asked and the rebel was reassigned.
The project progressed, reached a state of completion and was turned over to the utility to operate. The other team members went on to other projects and I remained alone to finish up the final project details.
However, big trouble lurked around the corner.
The utility management unfortunately made some operational decisions that were inconsistent with our procedures. The result was one of the eight coal burners became non-operational. In spite of having one less burner they continued to operate the plant at over 100% capacity. This caused a condition inside the boiler that put the integrity of the boiler at risk. Noting this situation I verbally notified the utility management that they needed to decrease the plant operation to 90% capacity or less or there would be costly consequences. This verbal request was not heeded.
I went to the trailer office and typed a letter to the utility management. There were no copy machines at that time so I had to make carbon copies. I made copies for Bill, the manager of our service department, a file copy for the project file and a copy for my personal file. At the bottom of the letter, I made a place for the utility manager to sign his acknowledgement and one for me to witness it.
The original and copies in hand, I marched to the utility manager’s office and presented them to him. I asked him to sign them as his acknowledgement.
In the letter, I explained in detail what was happening in the boiler as it was operating at elevated capacity with only seven of eight burners. I warned that this condition would create slag accumulation on the boiler tubes. The rate of accumulation would be such that after three to four days the slag would bridge the boiler’s base and automatically shut down the boiler. The resulting repairs would take six to eight weeks of round the clock effort and the boiler and plant would be idled for that duration. I stated that continued operation passed the next 24 hours would absolve our company of any responsibility for the consequences suffered by the utility during the resultant outage.
The manager willingly signed the letter and copies. I signed the original and each copy as witness to his signature. I left him with the original and proceeded to mail copies to the office and filed the file copies.
That detail done, I waited, staying on the jobsite round the clock. I felt that I needed to be there at the moment my predictions came to fruition. In anticipation of this, I had packed a suitcase with the necessities for staying overnight in our trailer office for a few days.
The utility management decided to ignore my letter and continued to operate the boiler at the elevated rate. I documented the status each day in a report. It took a week and half for my prediction to become reality.
The boiler shut down when the slag bridged over the base of the boiler. Now the recovery work began.
Six weeks of round the clock work was required to finally bring the boiler back on line. It required a careful management of personnel from numerous trades. The laborers were all union workers so there were political sensitivities that had to be considered. Each shift had to be designed so no shift got more prime rate hours than another. Laborers were making a lot of money and they were paid in cash weekly. It was a very challenging management venture but it all worked without incident. The slag was removed, a new burner was installed to replace the damaged one and the whole system was re-tested prior to release back to the utility.
The project was completed and I returned to the office to write and file the final report.
Some six months later, I was working as an engineer in the nuclear department. (Refer to “What Do You Want To Do in This Company?” post) One day, the corporate attorney appeared in my office. He asked me if I still had a copy of that signed letter that I had delivered to the manager at Orange & Rockland Utilities. I opened my desk file drawer and retrieved my file folder for the utility.
Paging through a few sheets I said, “Do you mean this one?”
He took a good look at the letter, quickly perused it and said, “Yes this is it. You just saved the company from a multi-million dollar lawsuit. Thank you!”
Turning Point
The promotion to manage the project under very stressful conditions and the successful resolution of all the issues, gave me confidence in my abilities to manage not only situations but personnel as well. This experience gave me confidence when the future brought other diverse and very challenging situations. Following this experience, another turning point followed in its footsteps. (Refer again to “What Do You Want To Do in This Company?” post)
I acknowledge God’s hand in these intricate series of events that ultimately opened the door for me to move to San Diego.
COPYRIGHT © 2014 ALLAN EDWARD MUSTERER