S. Reginald Stafford
600 Admiral Blvd #1501
Kansas City, MO. 64106
Cell Phone: (615) 491-3932
Email: srs_sr@yahoo.com
OBJECTIVE: Project Design Engineer or similiar field, with Refinery Background
QUALIFICATIONS: I think my best qualification, is that I KNOW how to "LEARN". That was one of the bigger ones for me.
Most of the "Engineering" experience I gained was what I learned on the job! And therefore, that's what
"college" did for me. I learned how & where to find all the codes that were needed and how to apply them.
Another thing was, that there's really, for the most part, "nothing" new,.. mostly an improvement on
something "very similar". Then eventually, something "new", WOULD, come about. I know how to take the
specifications, and design according to those specs. I remember one time, one of my bosses, who has since
passed on, told me, "Reggie, you have a real nack for offering something very similar to what is needed,
and then showing the additional cost, to "meet the specs". That gets them thinking about us! That would
also get our foot, "in the door", sorta speak, because we're the most economical product offered."
Would you believe I had "Auto-Cad", version 9, on my ol' Radio Shack, Tandy 1400, w/2, 3 1/2" floppy
drives, and no hard drive! The newer vervion, version 10, wouldn't work on my computer, and for that
matter "theoretically", the vervion I had, wasn't supposed to either! When I was taking the "auto lisp"
class, I was in the process of getting, the version I had, to work on my computer, and the teacher came
by my desk, before class had started, to visit w/me, and to see what I was I doing! He then commented,
"It will be impossible to get that version to work, w/o a hard drive!" By the next class session, the
following week, I had it "working"! Was he ever surprized! He then wanted to know everything! During the
conversation, it was revealed that he was an, "auto-cad developer"! Well, it's no wonder why he wanted to
know how I did that! So as I was saying earlier, the newer version wouldn't work, however NOW,.. w/my new
knowledge of auto lisp, I was able to up grade the menus on my version, so now it looked like version 10!
And don't forget, my computer, HAD NO HARD DRIVE!
Have you ever been reading along, in an article, and the words just didn't seem to flow along right,
somehow, or the punctuation is way off, or not even there? That's the main reason for this "resume' "
being so "drawn out"! Hopefully, you're continuing to read on, and also enjoying your read, as well as,
"seeing" that I do have some nice qualifications, and an ablity to write! So if your in need of someone
who can proof read and/or edit, any "papers for presentation", for your projects, I hope this will also
be a consideration toward employment with your Company.
Something else, I almost forgot about! I think I did some work for your Company, because your
webpage sure did look like some brochures that I have seen in the past!
EDUCATION
’73, ’86, ’87 Additional education for drafting and computer aided drafting,
Tulsa Vocational College, 3420 S Memorial Drive, Tulsa, OK 74145
1967-1972 Bachelor of Science of Mechanical Engineering with an Aerospace Option
University of Tulsa, 800 S Tucker Drive, Tulsa, OK 74104
1961-1967 High School Diploma, Pembroke Hill (Pem-Day 1967), 5121 State Line Road, Kansas City, MO 64112
EMPLOYMENT (Engineering)
1/89 thru 6/90 Assistant Chief Draftsman, Technotherm, Inc.
This company was a manufacturing company for "heat exchangers" and "pressure vessels", as well. When
I arrived here, I was surprized to see my former boss here from Superior! Then I remembered something he
said when he was hiring me over there, "Your credentials are such, that you could be my boss."
The shop here was much bigger, and in a straight line. So the shop here was way easier to follow the
progress of a product through the plant. I almost got to where I was able to converse with any one in the
plant on a first name bases! I was all ready there with all the department heads!
My responsibilities here were very similar to those that I had at Superior, which also ranged from
checking the layouts of the drawings, engineering calculations, and also, of course, supervising the
drafting department. However, here I kept a closer eye on the progress of the drawings, and time cards
on all the draftmen. This was then compiled into a report, which I then discussed with my boss, etc.
That auto-cad software that I had was really put to use here, especially my "auto-lisp" knowledge!
I made, like three or four or so "programs", that helped me with "designing flanges", the layouts for
"transitional section sheets" for the transitions between a rectangular section to a round section, like
between a "box type" heat exchanger, to a "stack", the "design of saddles", and then "base plates and
columns" for the heat exchangers to set on column type foundations.
Reason for leaving, again, not really sure! When my supervisor asked to talk to me, this particular
time, I thought he was going to be telling me about me, "movin' up"! Instead, it was about letting me GO!
I think I know what happened. I was applying for my PE license, and I used one of the engineers there for
a reference. He came by my desk, and congratulated me on going ahead to get my PE license. However, during
that conversation, he said something like this to me, "you sure opened a can worms w/me, because my PE
license is still out east, and the "Oklahome Engineering Board", wants me to have it here in Oklahoma!"
You can draw your own conclusion from that!
6/87 thru 12/88 Chief Line Draftmans, Superior
This company was a manufacturing company for "heat exchangers" and "pressure vessels". Upon starting
here, while I was going over some fine pionts with my supervisor, I saw a computer go by down the hall,
I said something about it, and he said, "Oh that's your computer, they're just now getting around to moving
it to your desk, it has Auto-Cad on it." One of my "qualifacations" for being hired, was that I had just
completed a couple classes in auto-cad. The second class was "auto-lisp", which was "auto-cad programing
list", thus the name "auto-lisp"! When I had a chance to get acquianted with some of my office personnel,
some of them told me that they had tried to get in an "auto-cad" class, but it was always full, and so
they never made it into one. Then an idea started going around, that I might teach a class of auto-cad,
however, it never came to pass, because we were to busy to get one going, and also, I was to busy doing,
"extra work", for one of the owners of the company. The three owners were brothers!
My responsibilities here ranged from checking the layouts of the drawings, engineering calculations,
and also, of course, supervising the drafting department. At the time that the company got the auto-cad
software, it was within the time frame to upgrade to the next version, so I did that for them. In the
process of doing that, I upgraded my software, to where it looked like I had that next version as well.
(The menus, anyway, because of my new knowledge of "auto lisp"!)
After a few months, my superviser quit, and a shop superviser came into the office from the shop, and
he had as I would call it, "engineering type hands on experence"! He and I got along fine. I then had an
offer for another job where I was going to be making 50% more, and there were more people for me to be a
superviser to. This was the first job that I had resigned from, so while I was going around visiting and
saying my "good-byes", the owners, all of them each told me, that they were very surprised that I stayed
as long as I did, and that they were very grateful!
9/75 - 2/86 Product Design Engineer, Born Inc.
Upon starting here, it was in the drafting department, and I was checking drawings and engineering
calcualtions. That was for about a year, and then the head of another department, the "EVP", had noticed
my work, and had me transfered to his department, where I then began learning about designing, "direct
fired refinery process heaters"! My salary then "tripled" in like two years!
The "direct fired heaters" I designed were anywhere from "fully automated" to "manually operated".
These heaters would be of the "preheated air" type heaters, to "ambiant air" type heaters, and the bigger
ones would be of the type that were "sectional prefab", so as to be minimal assembly in the field. Some
of these would have a full set of "ladders and platforms", and the ones that were "fully automated",
would have a full set of "instruments and controls".
The "instruments and controls", I had subcontrated out, and thus I supervised the timing of this,
along w/the shipping of the all the others things involved. Along the lines of "supervivion", there was
some required from me, on some of the bigger products, where there would be a number of drawings needed
etc. for the "proposal" part of the product.
During the "designing" part of the product, I would be checking and designing for "earthquake" and/or
"wind". There were some really interesting ones for California! I remember one, that I kept redoing it,
because the "additional mass" to take care of "wind" and/or "earthquake", would then cause a different
"design" for the "earthquake" and/or "wind", and/or thus "visa versa"! It was quite the "fine tunig" deal.
There was one I do remember well, because the "pry effect" played a BIG part! When the number of bolds
was increased, the "pry effect" showed the flange joint would fail! So the number of bolts had to be
decreased and the diameter of the bolts increased just a bit!
One time someone from in the company came by my office, and visited a bit with me and told me this,
"You may not know this, but did you know that you're one of the "world's best engineers in this field!""
Well, that was certainly nice to hear, however, I said to him, "Well you're very kind, and thank you."
Then he continued, "No no, you don't understand, whenever an Engineer such as yourself, gets one out of
three proposals, he's a really good Engineer! YOU'RE GETTING ONE OUT OF TWO! YOU ARE HITTING 50%!" So with
that statemant being made, that will certainly make since in these next few pionts. One of which is this.
My supervisor and I were having a discussion, and he got a little bit, how do you say this nicely,
I guess one really can't, he was beginning to raise his voice, to the piont to where his boss, the "EVP",
the one I mentioned before, came in the office, and told me to go to his office, and he would be there in
a moment, and for me to wait there! When he came in later, he told me not to see or to talk to him
anymore, that he would be supervising me! The "EVP" would now be my "boss"! Then, in the conversation that
followed, he asked me, "What's your goal here, in the company?" With out any thought or hesitation, I said,
"Your job or position." That seemed to please him. He then responded with this, "Well, in that case, I'll
keep you under my wing!" We got along great, which then leads to this. His boss, the "CEO" and Owner of
the company, who by the way was very acquianted with me, because we had visited occasionally, about college
stuff, called me into his office, and told me that his son, was coming back to the company, and for me to
take him under my wing! We got along great, however, I was the better engineer of the two of us, because He
started taking on other responsibilties.
During the last two or so years of my career there, we were all asked to take a cut in our salaries,
because the business started drying up, I mean, I was like doing retro fit type proposal designs and
feasablily type studies, and so on! And then came my last day! I had a severance pay that was really
incredible, it was like three and half months worth!
12/72 - 8/75 Design Engineer, Braden Winch
After graduating from college, I went to work for Braden Winch, located in Broken Arrow, OK.
As a Design Engineer, my first job there was to go through some of the winches and find out why they
were not able to be assembled. After going through all the parts to figure out the "tolerance build up",
the end result was to "tighten up" the tolerances. This was on "planetary gear" type winches. Then I went
on to design new winches, both types, the "worm gear" type and "planetary gear" type winches. I also put
together the "performance data" on all the winches, which was then used in the "sales brochures".
Reason for leaving, not sure. My boss called me into his office, and told me, "Reggie, you're one of
the best engineers here, but it's come down to me from higher up in the company, that I got to let you go.
You've got a month to find another job."
References: Later or upon request.