David Brown:
CLASS OF 1968
J. L. Forster Secondary SchoolClass of 1968
Windsor, ON
Walkerville Collegiate High SchoolClass of 1966
Windsor, ON
David's Story
I'm the red haired englishman...I came to Canada in 1965 and initially went to Walkerville...in the summer of 1966 we moved to Chappus Ave on the west side and started Forster in grade 12 in Sept 1966...I was on the track and field team...not great but I enjoyed it...I was on the cross country team and although I wasn't great I really enjoyed it...I dated Lucille Harrison and took her to the senior prom...I ended up repeating gr 12 and graduated in 1968 and went to St Clair College to become a draftsman...I realized quickly that I really wanted to be an engineer, so instead of going back for gr 13 I went into mechanical technology for another 2 years before going into second year engineering at UofW...I graduated as a mechanical engineer in 1975 and started working for Shell Canada at their Sarnia Refinery...I married Jennifer Hills after graduation, she went to Massey and Centenial...if you took any swim badges around that time you probably met her dad who managed the Windsor swimming program for many years...we stayed in Sarnia until 1983 when I was promoted to a staff engineer and moved to Toronto head office to become a fire protection specialist...we adopted our first boy in 1984 (John) just before we were transferred to the new HO in Calgary...I continued in my specialist role until 1990 when I decided to leave Shell after 15 years to take a job in the middle east...I went to Qatar to become the Head of Fire, Safety and Security for QGPC (National Oil Company)...I started 4 days after Sadam Hussein moved into Kuwait...a very interesting time to be in the role I was given...at the end of the contract in 1993 I accepted a position as HSE Manager for Amerada Hess in Calgary for their Canadian operation...paid out like a slot machine!!!...unfortunately they were bought out by Petro-Canada in 1996 and I went with them as their corporate safety manager...during this time we adopted another boy (Michael) in 1996 and then two sisters, Tarah and Cassy in 1998...in 1999 I left PC and started my own consulting firm The Safety and Loss Control Group...the company has been very successful but in the last 3 years I decided to let go of my employees and parr down so I could retire...the Albertan advantage can sometimes be too much to take...my company was very successful but that ...Expand for more
meant we were participating in every tar sands project and I burned myself out...we took advantage of Calgary's crazy real estate market and sold after being there for 25 years...after 6 homes we finally made a profit...we really enjoyed it there but it has become too expensive especially for our kids, there is no way they will be able to buy a house and hope to pay it off in 30 years...I wanted to live on the water somewhere and the house sale allowed us to purchase 1 1/2 acres on Lake Ontario in Kingston...we have been here since August of 2007 and in 2008 are still under rennovation, it never seems to end...we are looking forward to this summer...currently looking for a row boat and a sail boat...I still support clients in Alberta and New Brunswick mostly via e-mail and the occassional visit...that's the nice thing about being self employed, I can answer my e-mail from a bench overlooking the lake or while fishing at the bottom of the garden...however, after 7 years of post secondary education and 33 years as an engineer I feel I've paid my dues...I can't put e-mail addresses in here but try our site theslcgroup with the usually stuff before and after (com) or dbrown at (you can figure the rest)...we didn't look forward to coming to Ontario and paying 8% PST after no PST in Alberta...but what makes up for it is the lower hourly rates so all in all we are finding Ontario to be about the same or less...the biggest benefit is that the kids now have a hope of buying their own home even if they don't get a university degree...our eldest son John (now 24) gets married later this year...he is an engineer/conductor with CN and is really enjoying it...so who knows maybe we will become grandparents soon, unfortunately he moved back to Calgary just before we moved!!...I am writing this the day before our 33rd wedding anniversary...in that time I've put on 50lbs and am currently trying to get back to ideal weight and back to running but for an old fart of 58 I'm thinner than most and still have my hair except it's now more blonde than red...Forster has very special memories even though I was only there for 2 years they were very important years for growing up...if you've got this far, you're probably a friend and hopefully you'll want to get back in touch with so drop me a line...
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