Djamel Benoumelaz
Today is simply a “jerk” day. In addition to the passing of my friend Piotr, today is also the fifth anniversary of the death of Djamel Benoumelaz. Who was that? Perhaps it can be said that the icon of our business, also common to Vladimir Procházka, the future plant manager of Bodycote Liberec.
When we chose French company Fours BMI, a renowned manufacturer of vacuum furnaces to this day, as a partner in our private company, Djamel has arrived at HT-PROGRES in Horní Hanychov in Liberec and his task was to install our first vacuum furnaces, the hardening B64T and the tempering B64R.
We spent 14 days together and Djamel became our first professor of heat treatment. We devoured everything he tried to explain to us, not only during the day, but almost every evening in the hotel, over a beer or a glass of wine. Djamel was not only communicative, optimistic and cheerful, but in an unmistakable way very intelligent and empathetic. It was not long after the revolution, it was 1994, and it was roughly two years after privatization. Everything was new for me and Vladimír, and not only about the furnaces, but also his view of hard capitalism. It was a good school, and thanks to Djamel, we moved a lot forward.
And because we were close to each other, in addition to solving furnace problems, we became interested in our personal lives. It should be noted here that Djamel was the one who, under our pressure, caused a revolution in vacuum hardening furnaces programming. Thanks to his skill, sometime around 2001, we had our first Czech 10 bar B84TR furnace programmed with an isothermal hold according to Nadca 207. As I found out, some furnace manufacturers were not able to do this even in 2021.
Djamel in his favorite cafe in Rive-de-Gier
But back to Djamel. He lived in River-de-Gier, and travelling 70 km daily to Saint Quentin Fallavier near Lyon. He lived here with his wonderful wife Caroline and children Julian and Chloé. And so, when we went climbing in the valley of the Ardeche, we stopped at Djamel. Djamel, among other things, was also a big beat boy. He played in a local band and was doing pretty well. But then cancer of the larynx came and he lost his voice. And then he slowly disappeared until in December 2017 he left forever.
We are still in touch with his wife Caroline. Julian, as far as I know, works as a dad at Fours BMI. And daughter Cgloé? We met her in Prague in 2018. I remembered her as a baby. But Chloé turned out to be a genuine French youngster, full of life and with a sense of humour. And so, our meeting was great, cheerful and full of understanding. And I was glad that she could meet my wife Anna, her adult sons, and also my dear daughters.
With Chloé in Prague 2018
Why are you writing this? Perhaps just because sometimes I feel that thanks to my field, I have met really great people, and that we could appreciate it more than we do so far. And then suddenly those people leave and we realize that we miss a lot
December 9, 2022
Jiří Stanislav
