Robert Sticht
STICHT, Robert Carl (Bob) jnr, BSc BTE MSCI (1896-1958)
Bob was born in Queenstown, Tasmania on September 3, 1896, the eldest son of Mining and Metallurgical Engineer, Robert Carl Sticht and his wife Marion Oak Sticht nee Stage. He was educated at Melbourne Grammar School and graduated from Throop College of Technology (later CalTech) in California in 1917 with Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Technical Engineering degrees. He was naturalized as an American Citizen in December 1918 and enlisted in the US Army, rising to the rank of Lieutenant, but did not see active service.
Bob returned to Australia in 1919, managing the Balfour Mine in Tasmania and working in the flotation plant at Mount Lyell Chemical Works in Yarraville, Victoria. He progressed to Chemist at Mount Lyell and then Engineer at the Company's Fremantle factory. From 1929, Sticht was Chief Engineer at Cuming Smith & Mount Lyell Farmers Fertilizers Limited.
By 1930, Bob was based at Bunbury as the Construction Engineer for the Cuming Smith & Mount Lyell Farmers Fertilizers Limited factory. He was seconded to Westralian Farmers as a bulk handling engineer. He continued that role with Cooperative Bulk Handling (CBH), a cooperative formed between Westralian Farmers and the trustees of the Wheat Pool.
His impact was immediate in providing technical support to the ideas of CBH management including constructing the low cost H Storage Bin and the portable grain elevator that were crucial to the success of CBH. He also constructed the first bulk grain handling facility at Fremantle.
He returned to Melbourne in 1937 to take charge of the installation of major works at Yarraville.
Bob married Helen Jeanette Begg in the Melbourne Grammar School chapel on February 7, 1939.
He became Chief Chemical Engineer of Commonwealth Fertilizers and Chemicals Limited while still holding a similar appointment with the Western Australian company. During this time he designed and installed various projects associated with munitions production during World War II and contributed to the sulphuric acid and superphosphate industries after the war. Bob was President of the Society of Chemical Industry of Victoria from 1946 to 1948.
Between 1950 and 1954 he was the Construction Engineer for a 'state of the art' superphosphate factory at Albany.
Bob died in a fall from scaffolding at the Yarraville works of Commonwealth Fertilizers and Chemicals Limited, in Melbourne, on December 29, 1958. He was survived by his wife, Helen.
References:
Legends of the Grain Game, Cooperative Bulk Handling, West Perth, 2003.
Trove, Sticht, Robert Carl (1895-1958), Accessed 30.09.2022.
West Australian, 1.12.1934, p. 5.
West Australian, 26.11.1954, p. 10.
