Zoo news - Franz votes to retire

This week we bid goodbye to another well-known and well respected colleague from our industry, Franz Vogt who has decided to call it a day after more than 47 years on the job.

Franz started his career with Kaiser Carbon back in 1968 and spent 10 years working in the bauxite/alumina area at the Gramercy Alumina refinery before joining the Kaiser Carbon Division in 1978. For the next 30 years or so, Franz was the face of Kaiser Carbon, CII Carbon and finally Rain CII Carbon when it came to the technical details of petroleum coke use in aluminum smelting. Franz has made many lifelong friends in our industry and is a role model to all of us when it comes to supporting customers.

I had the pleasure of working with Franz for the first time while I was at Tomago in the early 2000’s. During that time, Franz was instrumental in getting Chinese shaft calcined coke accepted by smelters outside of China and Tomago was one of the early adopters here. Franz was also very active in his service to the industry and will be well remembered for organizing and hosting over 20 Carbon Symposiums which brought together technical and operations personnel from around the world to discuss problems and improvement opportunities of mutual interest. Since Hurricane Katrina, he has been working as a full time consultant for Rain CII Carbon and for the last several years has taken an active role in training many of Rain CII’s plant engineers and operations personnel.

It is an understatement to say that Franz is one of the true gentlemen of the industry. I will always remember riding in his car with him, as he tried to avoid the slightest traffic problems in or around New Orleans (usually unsuccessfully - though Franz will disagree). It didn’t matter whether he was conquering a small part of China single-handedly, asking difficult questions of presenters in TMS sessions, or escorting clients around the calciner, Franz’s smile always dissolved any tension.

If you know Franz and would like to wish him farewell, drop him a line, he would love to hear from you at: franzvogtnola@msn.com. Best wishes to Franz and family for the future.