Page 58 - Senior Link Magazine Winter 2024 - Online Magazine
P. 58
Exceptional
SENIORS
A World Away
from
West Texas
Paul Wilson
by Ted and Jody Wilson
aul Wilson joined our family course, the school got
three years after I did. His a call from the Waco with British Oxygen Company, a
Pchildhood and youth on Police Department. He and a fellow large supply company in Great
a West Texas farm, raising and diver donned wet suits and plunged Britain, Paul executed a robotic
showing livestock, working in into the murky water of Lake Waco. weld using manipulators. “Driving
the fields, playing football, and The stench was almost unbearable. a truck full of equipment on the
excelling in woodworking, welding, They discovered a woman in a left side of the road was the real
and many other activities hardly car who had been murdered and challenge,” he joked. But Paul’s skills
suggested a future so far removed wrapped in wire. “She was the wife and courage continued to take him
from his roots. of the Waco sheriff. Even today, I to numerous interesting and often
remember that smell,” Paul said. beautiful places.
After attending both Texas Tech and
Stephen F. Austin University, Paul That experience and his degree In Amsterdam, they used
earned an Associate Applied Science led to a career combining his “Cadweld,” welding cable to a
Degree in welding at TSTI in Waco. skills, talents, and newfound love pipeline. (Ed. Note: Cadweld is a
During that time, he elected to take for water. His team did welding brand name for the exothermic welding
a SCUBA diving class. While in the demonstrations, training, and process. It is most often used to form
research and strong bonds where arc welding would
development. induce too much heat into the joint.)
Sometimes his That was the first project ever done
company invented underwater in the channel where the
new techniques current could get up to four knots.
for underwater
welding. Paul Most of Paul’s work throughout the
researched the years was in the Gulf of Mexico,
square wave where his first assignment involved
welding machine hyperbaric welding on high
before it was even pressure pipes. “The marine life was
in production yet. most beautiful in the gulf. I always
felt closest to God viewing those
While working amazing creations.”
58 Lubbock Senior Link
