Richard Seggie was a great human being! That’s what I will remember about him. Always friendly, responded to challenges and was attentive to people’s needs.

I have known him for some 50 years and he became a great friend. He was a faithful member of OCCA Transvaal, which became OCCA Northern Section. He was a regular attendee of our Technical Meetings and social gatherings. He and his wife Sandy often used to join us at our AGM. Richard participated in out Mini-symposia, and I have recently re-distributed his lecture on design of mixing machines. He had a very good knowledge of paint manufacturing machines.

Richard was one of six siblings. He was born in Krugersdorp and was married for 50 years to Sandy. They recently lived in Florida Park, Roodepoort. They had four children Amanda, Beverley, Paul and Judith who are scattered from Joburg to PE and the UK. Needless to say, all four excelled at their individual careers. Richard was a devout Christian and belonged to St John’s Catholic Church in Florida. His hobby was wood working, to which, no doubt, he applied engineering principles and precision!

Richard had studied Mechanical Engineering at Randfontein Technical College and pursued a career in that discipline, specializing in mixing equipment for the paint and allied industries. He joined Jones Engineering and worked with Stuart Falconer in the early days. This post-war company was then sold to Protea Chemicals and Jones Engineering later became a division of Chemplast in about 1986. They developed the ‘Varishear Mixer’, which was a great success. At about this time Richard formed his own Company Arbess Engineering, and some years later came back to join with Chemplast. When Stuart retired as Divisional Manager, Richard took his place. Jones then broke away and the Company was renamed Jones Industrial Mixers/Jones International. Richard then returned to working as Arbess. In 2008, John Broli, MD of the new entity, invited Richard to work with them as Arbess. Richard handled the small machine orders for both parties. He retired some 3 years ago but continued to manufacture from his home workshop in Florida. Old engineers never give up! I should think that a great number of manufacturers in Gauteng, and around the country, benefited from Richard’s expertise and will be running his faithful machines for some years to come!

Having said all that, I must mention that in his later years, some eccentricity had set in. He would deliver a machine and had to be reminded to send an invoice for the job! What I do remember was his delivery vehicle – an enormously long (by today’s standards) 1991 Ford Sierra Station Wagon which had seen better days and suffered from continuous overloading. Richard was still very fond of this vehicle and his son Paul tells me her name was Myrtle and had been part of the family for years and his dad had driven him to his matric dance in it in 1992! He and his younger sister Jude got their first fines in her and Richard was more concerned that they had put her in harms way than the kids having got a speeding ticket!

So it was with great sadness that we had to say goodbye to this great man, after a short illness in December 2021. We will remember you Richard, with a twinkle in your eye! Rest in peace!

Graeme Stead

14/05/2022