Gordon Law has just celebrated his golden 50th anniversary at dealers Ernest Doe & Sons Limited.
Gordon Law
Gordon’s career began at the age of 16 following the sad passing of his father. Mr Law Senior had worked for William Batty, latterly Sir William, the managing director (and subsequently chairman) of Ford in Britain, who took it upon himself to help Gordon find a job. However, he was forced to look outside the business following Gordon’s unsuccessful attempt to get into the demonstration team at Ford and ‘not liking the look of the factory’.
With strong links between Ford and Ernest Doe & Sons, Sir William, known to the Doe family as Bill, had a good relationship with Alan Doe and sent Gordon to meet him at Ulting. Shortly after, on 21st September 1970, Gordon joined the company as a Parts apprentice at Fyfield Branch.
Gordon became a senior partsman at Fyfield under Dick Legg. Dick became branch manager at Braintree and Gordon joined him at the branch as parts manager.
When the business of Colchester Tractors was purchased by Ernest Doe, the company needed a knowledgeable person who knew the Doe systems to be parts manager, hence Gordon took this position. Gordon made his final move in 1996 when he moved to the purchase office to become the company’s parts stock controller.
When asked about a highlight of his career at Ernest Doe, Gordon mentions his time at the Colchester branch as the parts manager. He remarked that he "had a cracking good team" and it is no coincidence, say Ernest Doe, that during Gordon’s tenure at Colchester, this was the only time any branch parts department has ever beaten the Ulting parts department sales figures.
Last week Gordon was presented with a cake commissioned by his fellow purchase office team members and topped off with a sugar craft version of his favourite tractor. Despite the current restrictions, Gordon managed a Covid-compliant full week of celebrations at work, seeing friends and colleagues from across the business in small, socially distanced numbers.
The week was topped off last Friday when the directors and general managers raised a glass with Gordon in the board room and presented him with a limited edition Triple-D print and a garden bench.