IT'S not typical these days to find an employee who has been loyal to a company for four decades, but Stewart Harrison retired from Boekeman Machinery after 42 years last week.
Mr Harrison grew up on a sheep and cattle farm in the western districts of Victoria and moved to Western Australia in 1975 after completing a Diploma in Farm Management at Glenormiston Ag College.
"I had more of an interest in farm management starting out and back during my studies there were four subjects - farm mechanics, plant production, soil science and farm business management," Mr Harrison said.
"That diploma gave me that basic knowledge of farming and a very good grounding to get into the farm machinery industry."
Initially Mr Harrison planned for his trip west to be a working holiday, but after working on a few farms and for the Agriculture Department for 10 months, he successfully applied for a trainee sales representative job at Boekeman Machinery, Wongan Hills, in 1978.
Throughout his 42 years with the company Mr Harrison worked at the Wongan Hills, Dalwallinu, Dowerin and Northam branches and transitioned into senior management roles later in his career.
Mr Harrison met his wife Maggie after he moved to Dalwallinu with the company in 1983 and they had a son Robert, who now works at Murdoch University as an agricultural research officer.
A passion for the industry, different roles and new challenges are the reasons Mr Harrison provided for staying with the company for the past four decades.
"I've had different experiences with the company over the years - I managed the Dowerin branch for four or five years, took over Northam about 20 years ago and went into senior management at Wongan Hills - so I was always learning," Mr Harrison said.
When asked what he liked most about living in the country, Mr Harrison answers without hesitation: "the people."
Witnessing plenty of changes and advancements in the farm machinery industry throughout his career, Mr Harrison said the biggest change had been the invention of computers.
"It's funny, I asked my father what had been the biggest change in his lifetime and he said the advent of motor vehicles and when he asked me, I said it was computers - I didn't even bloody know what one was when I started," Mr Harrison said.
"We used to do all parts stock control and machinery stock control manually but nowadays it's all done on the computer.
"These days the whole business is run on that technology."
Joking that he had been doing a "transition to retirement" for the past six years after moving to three day working weeks, his wife is already based in Perth and he plans on joining her in the city to indulge in his hobbies of golf and sailing.
"I'm an active member of the Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club and I've been permanent crew on a yacht for the past eight years, sailing in Airlie Beach and Hamilton Island, so it's not like I will have nothing to do," Mr Harrison said.
Boekeman Machinery dealer principal Stuart Boekeman said Mr Harrison had been a "loyal company man".
"The 42 years Stewart has been with the business is 80 per cent of the life of our company," Mr Boekeman said.
"For someone to remain loyal to one employer these days is incredibly rare.
"He will definitely be missed and we doubt whether 42 years will be achieved again in the industry, not only at our dealership but any others in the business."
