John Bernard Ashby
John Benard Ashby
(1936 - 2021)
John Ashby was born at Leichhardt, Sydney, and attended the Christian Brothers Rozelle School and St Francis School, Paddington. His father was a mental health nurse at Callan Park Hospital.
He commenced work as apprentice ship-building draughtsman at Cockatoo Docks and Engineering, Sydney, in December 1952. He served an apprenticeship of five years and then two years and two months as Ship Design Engineer. in the footsteps of Allan Payne and Warwick Hood, designers of yachts for America's Cup.
He studied part-time for Diploma in Naval Architecture, awarded 1959.
In February 1960 he moved to the Department of Concrete Technology, University of New South Wales as a technical officer to assist study in Civil Engineering.
He was awarded a Diploma in Civil Engineering in 1963 and Bachelor of Engineering Degree (Civil Engineering) 1965. In December 1963 he joined Ready Mixed Concrete Industries in Sydney as Laboratory Engineer then Company Engineer, Area Manager, Technical Manager involved in pre-mixed concrete and in addition secondment to manage a pre-stressed / pre-cast concrete company at Penrith NSW.
In April 1972 he transferred to BMI Sydney , an associated company, involved in technical aspects of concrete production within NSW and also stints in Indonesia, Malaysia and Fiji. He was appointed Manager of BMI fly ash division in December 1975. He completed a research for the degree of Master of Engineering, awarded 1976.
In April 1980 he was appointed President/General Manager of BMI fly ash company based in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, an in May 1982 returned to Australia for a further 14 months with BMI.
From August 1983 to June 1985 he worked for Monier Resources in Sydney as Chief Materials Engineer (concrete applications) - mainly research and development (applied) in concrete and associated materials.
Between July 1985 and October 1986. He was Senior Scientific Officer with NATA responsible for accreditation of testing laboratories in the field of Mechanical Testing in NSW and Queensland. This included assessment of testing laboratories in Hong Kong.
From October 1986 to May 1988 he was Concrete consultant with Taywood Engineering, consulting engineers, Sydney.
From May 1988 to January 1989 he was General Manager of Lachlan Valley Gold Mines and Centralime Limited, Sydney. Company operations included refurbishment of ceramic tile plant at Lithgow, conversion of de-commissioned cement plant to fertiliser manufacturing plant, initial arrangement of quarry development Kandos, NSW.
From February 1989 to July 1993 he was NSW Manager of a newly started chemical admixture company.
From July 1993 he became Technical Sales Manager, Concrete - Australian Steel Mill Services responsible for developing and maintaining markets for slag as aggregate in concrete and for promotion of slag in cement.
Representations.
Federal President, Concrete Institute of Australia. Member, Federal Council - Concrete Institute of Australia 1987. President, NSW Branch of Concrete Institute of Australia 1989 - 91. Ex-officio Member, Executive Committee of NSW Branch of Concrete Institute of Australia. Former Convenor, Training sub-committee, NSW Branch of Concrete Institute of Australia. Member, National Durability Committee - Concrete Institute of Australia. Chairman, Organising Committee - Concrete 91. Member, Organising Committees - Workshop 88 and Concrete for the 90s. Convenor of Technical Activities Committee - FlP/Concrete Institute of Australia. Symposia, Sydney, Australia, 28 Aug - 3 Sep, 1976. Occasional member, Standards Australia Committee BD/2 Concrete Structures. Member, Standards Australia Committee BD/10 Cement. Member, Standards Committee BD/42 Methods of Testing Concrete. Member, Standards Australia Working Group CE/12/2/-/1 Concrete Aggregate. Specification (AS 2758.1 Aggregates and Rock for Engineering Purposes, Part 1 - Concrete Aggregates). Member, Standards Australia Committee BD/49 Manufacture and Specification of Concrete.
Other Experience:
Part-time lecturer in Materials Testing, Concrete, Sydney Technical College, NSW Institute of Technology and Granville and Blacktown Technical colleges; Materials Science, NSW Institute of Technology.
Assessor with National Association of Testing Authorities, Australia (since 1965 approximately).
Author or co-author of more than 30 publications/presentations on ready-mixed concrete, fly ash, slag, admixtures, pumping, durability, quality assurance and testing.
To access an oral history interview with John Bernard Ashby please use this link:'
https://heritage.engineersaustralia.org.au/wiki/Oral_Histories_Sydney
