After 30 years of teaching others to weld, Ben Ford is retiring in December from the Hobart Institute of Welding Technology.  Ben’s welding career actually began at Hobart Brothers Company where he served as a custodian, a production welder, and in the research and development department for some 9 years before training to become a welding instructor, and later obtaining his American Welding Society certification as a welding inspector.  He has spent a considerable amount of time throughout the years conducting corporate training in various companies.

“I’ve traveled to Turkey, France, Colombia, and in the U.S. to conduct training,” says Ben.  “The longest contract I worked was for four years at General Electric in Cincinnati where I trained 360 maintenance welders.  In some companies where I conducted classes, the welding procedures were not up-to-date, so training involved the upgrading both the procedures and the welders.”

“The biggest change I have noticed, just in the last ten or fifteen years,” says Ben, “is the student participation.  Students don’t have the self-motivation to develop a high level of skill that was evident in my earlier years of teaching and that is so important in the workplace.”

Ben’s reputation for excellence often preceded him as reflected in the comments from Phil Pratt,  President of the Hobart Institute, “Before I joined the Hobart Institute, I had heard about the instructor who could run two beads simultaneously down both sides of a 6" pipe. I found out it was Ben in his younger days. Interestingly enough, students still talk about him and his feat. I've asked him several times to do it once for me but in his soft-spoken manner, he declines. That says a lot about Ben. In his gentle way, he's taught thousands of welders and he doesn't boast about that either. We'll miss him and we wish him the best of retirements!

Ron Scott, Director of Training, echoed some of those same sentiments, “Ben has definitely done a great job and has earned the respect of everyone who has had the opportunity to work with him.  His retirement will be a tremendous loss to the Hobart Institute and to the welding industry.”

On a lighter and more personal note to Ben, Ron recalls a fishing trip and says, “If Ben plans on fishing during his retirement, he should first contact me for some fishing lessons!  And he should always be aware of fifty gallon drums!”

Ben plans to spend his retirement traveling and doing things for himself and in his own time after he no longer has to meet the schedules dictated by the working world.

Notes or cards of retirement wishes may be sent to:

Ben Ford
Hobart Institute of Welding Technology
400 Trade Square East
Troy, OH  45373