FM Conway - Going the Extra Mile

Going the Extra Mile

exactly was I going to do that, I asked him angrily, since I didn’t have a pot to piss in? But Jack’s solution, as always, was simple, brief, and to the point. ‘Go to the bank,’ he suggested. ‘Get a loan.’ And that is what I did. Geoff Wright could see that the business was in good shape. What I was proposing made sense. He was happy to oblige. Dad wasn’t so happy; but, in the end, he agreed. Looking back on it, I can see that it wasn’t the most pleasant way to bring the business under new management, at least as far as the family was concerned. But – knowing him, and knowing me – it was inevitable. Dad started the company: it was his company, and although he wanted to take more of a back seat, he just couldn’t get himself to let go completely. So, I had to force his hand. After all, I had strong views, too. And if I was going to take the business in a new direction, I didn’t want a voice from the back seat arguing at every turn. So, in 1981, I bought the company from my father. But Dad never left completely; he couldn’t stay away. He came back to supervise a few projects, and to manage the Spot Tenders. It was only five years later, on his 65 th birthday, that he decided finally to retire. And by that time, we were well launched in our new direction. It was my father’s strength, energy, and determination that had guided the company through its infancy. But it was going to require a different set of skills, and a different vision, to guide the company into its adulthood. I was sure that the Term Contract with Merton would prove to be the first building block for our new future. And looking back, nearly thirty-five years later, I don’t think I was wrong. And we have held the Merton contract to this day.

The bungalow at Tragumna which Dad finished building in 1975. This is where he spent an increasing amount of time after his heart attack in 1976. He was a keen fisherman, and was always a countryman at heart.

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