Refinery Employee Celebrates 44 Years of Shell Service

I grew up in Coupeville, WA and was one of five kids. I was very close with my dad, and we spent many hours exploring the outdoors together. He was probably the most importance influence over the course of my life. Following high school, I spent two years at a community college studying business.

I wanted to own a Christmas tree farm!

I’m now in my 44^th year, which is hard to believe! I joined the site part-time in 1974 working in the storehouse, and then I transitioned to a full-time role in oil accounting about five years later. After a five-year stint there, I moved to business planning for nearly 10 years. From there, I became a processing unit foreman for 14 years.

I moved to Convent, LA in 2005 to work in the reliability group at Shell’s Convent Refinery, but I came back to the Pacific Northwest two years later since my sister was battling cancer. When I returned to Puget, I served as a production supervisor on the west side of the refinery for nine years before becoming an infrastructure lead.

That’s easy – it’s all about the people. I have worked with so many incredible folks from all backgrounds, races, ages and experiences, and we’ve had a lot of fun over the years. The common bond between us is that we want to do our best work, and we want to do it safely so everyone goes home to their families the same way they arrived. We’re all one team here.

The amount of modernization that Shell has done here is phenomenal, and the increased focus on process safety is best-in-class. A deeply embedded safety culture exists across all departments and levels now, which is critical since we have many more units with very complex operating processes.

Safety is everything. Without it, we don’t operate. I remember the fatalities that we had here at the site in the late 1990s, and I never want to feel that way again. Safety really hit home for me during those two incidents since we lost lives…someone lost a husband, mother, sister, brother, etc. on those days.

The culture here now is safety first at all times – it’s not a ‘make money at all costs’ type of mentality in any way. At the end of the day, we must be able to make money safely in order to achieve success inside and outside of the plant. We owe that to ourselves, our teammates, our families, our environment and our communities.

I’m proud of the people I’ve had the opportunity to work with over the years, and I’m even prouder of what we have accomplished together for our families and our communities. The jobs here change lives and strengthen communities, and I’ve experienced that firsthand.

I live in Oak Harbor, WA, and I’m married with five kids and 10 grandkids. My family is my guiding light, and I am so fulfilled by watching my loved ones succeed and thrive. My hobbies include hunting, camping, fishing and hosting barbecues with our neighbors and friends.

In the 1970s before I joined the refinery, I fished in Alaska off Kodiak Island. I remember all kinds of situations, from pulling a distressed fishing boat away from hitting the rocks in rough seas, to towing a distressed fishing boat across the Gulf of Alaska south of the Cook Inlet in very high seas. Check out the photo below for a shot of a compass that I found in an abandoned fishing boat that was half-sunken on the rocks going into Old Harbor on Kodiak.

No way! Even after 44 years with the company, I’m still learning new things and receiving opportunities to work on unique projects that challenge me in different ways. Plus, what would I do with my time if I retired? I can’t just sit around and twiddle my thumbs! I really want to give back to the site at this point in my career, and I’m finally in a position to do that. This refinery is truly my second home.

I want people to say that they genuinely enjoyed working with me and that they always felt like their voice was heard. I hope they view me as a team player as well.