York is a charming city in the North of England and we were lucky as a family to move there in 1961 when Dad got a job as a lecturer in Electrical Engineering at what was then York Technical College. So, returning to York to visit Dad, when he was in his late eighties, was always such a great pleasure. Mum had passed away in 2002 but the chance of driving the 200 miles up the M1 for “York and time with Dad” was always something special.
My friend, Brian, who was visiting me in London, was the CEO of a reasonably sized industrial business. The turnover must have been close to £500m with a few thousand employees. As he was heading home to Scotland it seemed a good plan for us to travel together in my car to York and then for him to catch the train on to Edinburgh. Four hours in the car to natter and sort out the problems of the world!
Dad was really quite a good cook in his own way, and one of his specialities was cream of mushroom soup with slices of wonderful nutty brown bread and butter. Yes butter, real full fat butter! So with Brian and me in the car heading his way with an ETA in York of about midday he was busily working in the kitchen on his mushroom soup for our lunch. “We can’t let Brian head on up to Scotland without some soup for lunch” was his argument.
The three of us sat at Dad’s lovely small old oak dining table, bread and butter was in place and we were digging into the soup. Even now I can almost taste it, it really was that good. Anyway, Dad hadn’t met Brian before so as we settled in, Dad asked “What do you do Brian”? Brian, even though he was a bit of a high flyer, wasn’t pretentious in any way and just started to tell Dad about what he did. After talking about product ranges, the markets, the sales volumes and the number of employees, Dad got the picture. So, he asked “I suppose that makes you pretty much the boss then”? “Well, yes” said Brian, “I suppose it does”. Dad said that he had never been in that sort of position and it must be quite a responsibility, especially with all those people. Dad had actually held some pretty senior positions; he was the Head of the Engineering Department at Gulf Technical College in Bahrain for a number of years, and was acting principal one Summer, but for some reason he chose not to mention that. He said that he had been told that when you really are “The Boss” you can do absolutely anything that you want. You have all those people that work for you and at your command they will do whatever you say. He had heard that as “The Boss” you have a huge office and in the middle of the office an equally large desk. It is at that desk you sit and dream up what it you are going to make the organisation do. “The way it all works is simple,” he said. “In the centre of your desk there is a big beautiful shiny bright red button. When the button is pressed, whatever you have decided is immediately converted into action by everyone who works for you.” Dad then explained that there is only one little problem. He said “As the boss, you can’t press the button yourself”!
In memory of John Peter Sharp 1922 – 2012
