Robert Ghirlando writes:
Frederick Amato Gauci was first and foremost a true gentleman and a very able administrator.
He was my first employer, at GI (Malta) Ltd factory in Kirkop, where now there is ST Microelectronics.
Indeed, at the time, GI was the equivalent of what ST is today. I learned a lot about the art of manufacturing and management at GI.
Mr Amato Gauci was managing director who allowed us, engineers and managers, the freedom to manage the factory to the best of our abilities and, even better, to be creative and spend much of our time experimenting new ways of reducing production costs. We worked long hours and yet he would be in before us and still there when we left.
We were all relatively young then, especially when compared to Mr Amato Gauci, whom we affectionately called Ix-Xiħ, in the same way that many then called their father, Ix-Xiħ, as in being wise.
We, the GI gang, celebrated his 90th birthday by hosting him to a grand dinner. We were now all much older, retired or retiring. Most of us had done well in our careers and had reached top management positions.
I am sure he must have felt proud of his ‘boys’. It was not our first such reunion, but we all knew it was probably his last. He knew it too. He was visibly moved when he gave us his after-dinner speech.
My lasting image of Mr Amato Gauci is of him sitting behind his grey metal desk on his tubular chair in his spartan office, with his moustache, cigarette holder and his unique voice.
To his two daughters, Ann and Sandra and their families go my deepest condolences.