A tribute to one of the industry's best
The great and the good of the UK demolition industry gathered last night to pay tribute to mark the "retirement" of one of its finest.
There was a surprise party in Birmingham last night to mark the “retirement” of former IDE president, John Woodward (in the flowery shirt, above).
I was honoured to be invited to give a speech in tribute to John. You can read my speech below.
If you are in the demolition industry, there is very little I can tell you about John Woodward that you don’t already know.
He is, without question, one of the most influential industry figures of the past 20 years or more.
Together with Terry Quarmby, he presided over what was surely a Golden Age for the Institute of Demolition Engineers.
He was instrumental in the creation of the Demolition Managers’ and the Demolition Degree training courses.
Just about every training course used within the UK demolition industry bears the John Woodward trademark in some way or another.
He was the co-author of several sets of industry guidance notes – He brought the knowledge; I brought the grammar.
John and I also co-authored a pair of children’s books – My Dad Does Demolition and My Dad Drives a Digger
John has not only been a judge for the World Demolition Awards but he has also been a winner on several occasions too.
While others talk about inspiring the next generation of demolition workers, John has actually done it - visiting multiple schools, colleges and universities to spread the demolition gospel.
As I said, if you are in the demolition business, you already know all that.
You will also know that he loves a loud shirt; a sharp suit; and that he owns some spectacular shoes. That he loves Wolverhampton Wanderers. And that he is married to his soul mate, Jill.
But there is another John Woodward. There is a John Woodward away from the industry headlines and away from Molineux.
And it is THAT John Woodward that – I think – is the real reason we are gathered here tonight.
So allow me to tell you a little something about THAT John Woodward.
A few years ago, I was going through a bad time.
I had just lost my best friend in a motorcycle accident. My father had just been diagnosed with cancer. I was angry at the world.
Now, being a bloke, I didn’t tell anyone any of this. I still got up each day. I still went to work each day. I still chatted with and laughed with people, even though I just wanted to be left alone.
In the middle of all this, John started to give me these tiny, little writing jobs to do. A piece for a local newspaper here. A piece for the C&D website there.
They were all things he could have written himself quite easily and just as well. But, over a period of several months, these little jobs just kept on coming.
They were a welcome distraction. And it was only years later that I discovered that was precisely the point.
Even though I hadn’t discussed my mental state with anyone and even though I thought I had kept it hidden, John had spotted it in the quality and the tone of my writing.
Unbeknown to me, he reached out to my wife to ask if everything was OK because my writing had become angry and bitter.
She explained some of the things I was dealing with at the time.
And so, without a word to me, he set about distracting me from my personal issues.
Thanks to John and a course of happy pills, I emerged from that dark cloud a few months later.
The fact that he identified my problems purely from my writing says a lot about John. The fact that he chose to do something about it says even more. But the fact that he managed to help without forcing me to confront my own issues says the most.
For several years after, John remained my moral compass. If I wrote something controversial, I would send it to him before I hit the publish button.
I didn’t always listen to his advice. But there are many articles on my computer hard drive that never saw the light of day because of John’s wise and timely intervention.
Even today, when I write something contentious, I find myself pausing and thinking “Now. What would John do”.
Maybe I should have asked myself that a bit more often over the years.
In the rough, tough and often dog-eat-dog world of demolition, John’s compassion, dedication, generosity and good humour shines like a diamond in the debris.
John is admired, respected and genuinely liked universally throughout the demolition world.
To this day, his name opens doors. In the past few months, I have dropped his name into industry conversation in the US, in Germany and in Italy.
The response is always the same. “You know John Woodward?”
In demolition circles, he is David Beckham, only with better shoes and a much more cheerful wife.
For all the accolades, trophies, medals and awards John has won over the years, he has two additional accomplishments that are pretty much unequalled within the industry.
Through his commitment to training and his work with schools and colleges, John is one of a very select group that have actually given back to the industry way more than he ever took out.
But there is another thing that he has achieved. It is a thing that I think most of us aspire to but which very few of us will ever attain.
John gets to leave the industry better than he found it.
The demolition industry today is safer, better trained and more respected than at any time in its often chequered history.
Much of that stems from the guy in the sharp suit and with the Black Country accent.
My mate. Mr John Woodward.