Remembering
A 45 Year Engineering Career
by John McMillan

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John McMillan began his mechanical engineering career in 1971, joining Combustion Engineering (C-E) as a junior engineer trainee for a six-month probationary period. He describes what engineering life was like in the 1970s when there were no computers, calculators, or the internet, and all the mechanical design work was done manually with pencils and paper. John shares anecdotes about hijinks in the office, including fraudulent activities, drinking, and growing marijuana, as well as physical altercations between employees, and a diverse range of characters and personalities that contributed to many interesting stories. In a managerial role, he had to manage several personnel issues, including an employee who was arrested at John’s Christmas lunch and another caught stealing proprietary information. He was approached by the wife of an engineer, who begged him to rehire her husband, whom he had laid off. John recalls his experiences with customers who received new products that did not perform as advertised. One customer demanded that John be fired for insubordination. Once, John had to physically stop a project manager from choking a customer in front of the customer’s wife at their home. He recounts his career path to becoming the Director of Engineering, including subsequent demotions due to internal reorganizations and company takeovers, which brought him back to a role he had held nineteen years earlier. He explains how he regained the position of Director of Engineering. A lawsuit against the company resulted in John representing the firm in a four-month court case as the primary defence witness. He shares stories about the trial preparation and proceedings, including the plaintiff’s lawyer attacking him and calling him incompetent and arrogant. John shares his feelings when threatened with a personal layoff twice and considers volunteering for a layoff a third time. In the end, he decides to lay himself off after forty-five years of service.

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John was born and raised on a small dairy farm in Franklin Centre, Quebec. He attended Sir George Williams University in Montreal and received his Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering degree in 1971. John joined an international engineering company, Combustion Engineering, as a junior engineer trainee on a six-month probationary period. He married, raised two sons, and stayed with the same company for over 45 years. He was the Director of Engineering when he left the company in 2016. He now lives in retirement in Manotick, Ontario. He has published his memoirs, "Remembering - The Life of a Simple Man", published by FriesenPress in 2025. John is a member of the Chateauguay Valley Historical Society and has written an article, "The McMillans of Franklin," published in their 2025 annual journal, and articles " The Hopes of Chateauguay Valley" and "The Welches of Chateauguay Valley" published in their 2026 annual journal.

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John McMillan