My father, Bill Swan, who has died aged 89, worked on skyscrapers as an engineer in 1960s Toronto and later pioneered jet washers for commercial use.
His career reflected the upheavals of the 20th century. Born in Howdon, Tyneside, he left school at 14, in 1941, and became an apprentice boilermaker at the Wallsend Slipway, one of the great shipyards of the Tyne. His father, Joe, also a boilermaker, died of tuberculosis the same year, leaving Bill with his mother, Nancy (nee Corbett), and two sisters.
Shipbuilding was a vital part of the war effort, and the yards were a regular target for enemy bombers. Bill’s flair for geometry soon saw him made a “marker-off”, creating shapes from plate steel that would be bent and riveted to form complex ship parts.
In the early 50s Bill and his new wife, Doreen (nee Brown), escaped postwar austerity by moving to Canada. He joined a Toronto metalworking company, Macotta, where he rose from the shop floor to become manager of a factory making window and door frames and employing more than 200 workers.
In the 60s Toronto was being transformed from a provincial town to a modern city and Bill’s engineering prowess helped make new architectural styles a practical proposition – including curtain walling, in which a building is enveloped by a “skin” of glass and metal - and his work went into many of the city’s new skyscrapers.
My parents returned to Britain, to Tynemouth, in 1970, along with my sister Debbie and me, and Bill took on responsibility for the production of radiators at Thorn Heating, at its factory in Gateshead. At a time when millions of households were converting to central heating, he introduced spot welding into the manufacturing process, greatly boosting production.
At Thorn he met another talented engineer, Matt Ditchburn, who had the idea of building coin-operated pressure washers. The two built the first prototype and set up a company in Sunderland in 1975 to commercialise their invention. Their timing was poor, though, with the economy struggling in the aftermath of the 1973-75 recession and, although the machines are now common, the company foundered the following year.
My father returned to the shipyards, which were a shadow of their former selves, working until his retirement in 1992 as a foreman plater, overseeing production of North Sea platforms and other projects. He gained a reputation for precision and had a natural ability to inspire the best work in others. As a teenager I was once introduced as his son, eliciting the response: “Bill Swan? Best plater on the Tyne.”
Bill and Doreen divorced in 1978. He married Rose Meldram (nee McCue) in 1983 and she survives him, along with Debbie and me, his stepdaughter, Ann, and six grandchildren.
