Talk on 19th June 2019

On June 19th, Franklin Schultz, a Dutch national, gave a talk entitled ‘From Priesthood to Engineering’. This was a fascinating talk about Franklin’s very varied working life, based on the principle of needing a radical change every ten years or so.

Having no English, he started by training in Durham to become a Catholic priest. To make some money he briefly became a kitchen assistant on a large cruise liner, and then translated a book from Dutch to English. As a priest he served first in Yorkshire and then in very poor areas of Lima, Peru.

Leaving the priesthood after 8 years, he became an export sales engineer in Bradford (studying at college as he had no knowledge of engineering) and then in the Lake District (lots of travelling). He started his own slate-importing company, and after another ten years sold it, and then undertook a variety of contracts, delivering projects of all sorts from conception to completion.

Franklin was a master story teller, holding Probus members’ attention and interest throughout, with a talk involving no notes or visual aids.