Day 16 of "Making It Possible" - Pat Bachen
Pat was diagnosed with ALS in November 2019 and he continues to live his best life possible as it shows in the creative and inventive work that he continues to do. Building his own Ipad holder out of pool noodles and always helping others if they need advice on “how to fix it.” Pat enjoys attending our current ALS Zoom Coffee groups as social support to connect with others. This is his truly amazing story:
I was born in France and came to Canada in 1952 with my parents. My parents wanted me to keep my first language so I went to College St-Jean when it was a high school. I started Electronics at N.A.I.T. in 1968 and graduated in 1972. These were the days when electronics were mostly calibrating instruments.
My first job was troubleshooting new televisions as they came off the assembly line at the Electrahome plant in Kitchener Ontario. I moved back to Edmonton in 1973 and was hired as an Avionics Technician for Pacific Western Airlines. This position originally was to cover for someone who was off on sick leave. In the end, I spent 9 years with them fixing aircraft and repairing equipment. I have some memorable trips to the far North when they were flying Hercules aircraft up there.
In 1981 PWA moved their maintenance operations to Vancouver. I decided to stay in Edmonton so I found a position at the General Hospital as a Biomedical Technician. In 1988 I was moved to The Grey Nuns Hospital just before opening and was challenged to get the place functioning. This involved not only the medical equipment but anything else that was electronic such as elevators, doors, and even parking gates. Four years later that was accomplished. It still works today.
In 1995 I was laid-off, so I went back to work in aviation for CAE. There I help to rebuild 50 CT-114s (2 Snowbirds) and worked on engineering the Hercules for warfare. In 1997 CAE lost the Hercules contract for servicing so I was laid-off again. That fall I was hired by an oilfield instrument company called Alberta Instrumentation. Within 2 months I invented an instrument that became the industry standard and safest world wide. I have designed all kinds of equipment that are still being used in the oil patch today. In 2006 I was granted a patent from Canada first, then the US for my invention.
In 2005 I started my own business to build and sell my patented device. Then I retired in late 2017.