by Dr. Iain
Corness
The
secretary of the Jomtien-Pattaya Rotary Club is a mild mannered
Englishman, Dennis Stark. Despite outward appearances, Dennis has had more
experiences than many, been through tougher times, and yet has retained
that gentlemanly air, despite having very working class roots - and never
forgetting them.
When Dennis was born, his father was a factory process
worker, whose own parents had died when he was 12 years old and he was
sent down the coal mines to work. For Dennis’ father, process work was
definitely coming up in the world, after the mines, literally and
metaphorically.
Then came World War II. “I was (left as) the man of
the house, as my father and elder brother were given the call of the
clarion,” said Dennis. Left at home with his mother and sisters, his aim
was to buy a motorcycle, which he eventually accomplished by saving the
money he would get selling papers to German prisoners of war in the local
POW camp.
He also attended the local school, often being taught
by older students, as his teachers were also called up for active war
service. It was more than the frontline soldiers who had to sacrifice. For
the war children, their education was being sacrificed. But he did well,
having a natural ability and gained his Mathematics, Chemistry and Physics
certificates by the time he was 18 years old.
However, once again he was in the wrong place at the
wrong time, and he could not use his certificates and join the workforce.
He was called up for compulsory National Service! In no time at all he was
kitted out, given a passport and shipped off to Egypt, where he stayed for
the next two and a half years. It was no sand, sea and sun holiday. “It
was active service. We went around armed in groups of four. I didn’t
even get to see the pyramids until I flew over them on the way home!”
However, he did manage to get the use of a Matchless service motorcycle,
on which he excelled at trials riding, admitting during our interview that
he substituted a 16 tooth front sprocket on the bike to enable him to
climb slopes the others couldn’t manage. Fifty two years later, his
secret is exposed!
Returning to the UK and shaking the sand out of his
boots, the British government supplied him with a university tutor to make
amends for interrupting his education for the previous 30 months. Back up
to scratch, he applied for a job with the giant ICI conglomerate as an
Industrial chemist and joined a factory involved in the production of
Titanium metal.
During the next six years he rose in the ranks to the
position of chief analyst, and whilst that sounds very grand, financially
it was not. After hours he would repair TV sets to help make ends meet for
his wife and children. Once it looked as if he would be unable to go to
work, because his shoes were so worn out, the cardboard insoles fell out!
His boss saw his predicament and bought him a new pair. However, Dennis
was not complaining about those times. “That’s what it was like in
those days. It didn’t do us any harm,” says Dennis today.
He continued in the Titanium industry, rising
progressively for the next 30 years. “I was part of the team to
manufacture the first Titanium metal for the first Rolls-Royce aero
engines.” In fact, the methods he set up for analysis of the materials
are still in use today.
From the laboratory side he moved into management,
commissioning plants and then into Quality Assurance, eventually becoming
a QA auditor, a position reserved only for those with enormous experience
in all aspects of industrial production processes. He still has today that
special police pass stating, “The holder of this pass is a specialist in
chemical incidents and may be allowed through police cordons.” Not quite
a ‘Get out of jail card free’ but perhaps enough to get him off the
odd parking infringement!
By 1987, the world of the chemical industries was
troubled, with liabilities from incorrect handling of industrial
chemicals. The Titanium industry needed someone to look at product
liability world-wide. Dennis was by then a widower, his wife of many years
having died suddenly and unexpectedly. His daughters were grown up and
married with families of their own, and as Dennis said, “I needed to put
some space between myself and my daughters, so they could attend to their
own families.” So this time he was in the right place at the right time,
and roamed the world to check on the competency of the people handling his
company’s materials. With a new passport, a company credit card and a
bunch of airline tickets he went to Australia (and Tasmania), South
Africa, Brazil, Europe and an Asian country called Thailand, where he was
to look at work being carried out at the TPI factory in Rayong.
He enjoyed Thailand. He liked the Thai people, both
those in industry and without. “They gave an impression of serenity and
happiness. Something I was looking for.” He also met a Thai lady,
Naiyana, who would later become his wife!
In 1990 he decided to take early retirement and
returned to Thailand. Not to vegetate in the corner, but to enjoy his life
in this friendly environment. However, this sometimes has meant attempting
to deny the environment, such as driving a 14 foot speedboat from Chainat
in Singburi, down the Chaopraya, through the port of Bangkok, across the
Gulf of Siam, to Pattaya. “You’ll die,” said his friends. He
didn’t!
These days, Dennis has Rotary and is one of its past presidents, played
golf twice a week until some surgery recently, but hopes to be back on the
course within three months. In the meantime, “I only want to live
long!” I hope you do, Dennis, you are enjoying life too much to toddle
off early!
