Father and son duo, Brian and Rob MacFarland work side by side as Equipment Operators with Gulf Operators. Brian has been employed with Gulf since they opened in 1984 and worked at Irving Equipment for 10 years before that. His son Rob began his career as a summer student with Gulf in 1998 and got hired on full-time after graduation.

“It’s pretty cool working with your Dad, you know? You get to go home after work and have conversations on the phone about what each other thought about the project we worked on that day, or what we were going to be doing the next day. Not a lot of people can do that”, said Rob.

Recently, the MacFarland’s celebrated a significant long service milestone together, receiving 25-year and 45-year pins. Brian mentioned, “We both got called up to the stage, and they told me I was getting my 45-year pin. The feeling was pretty incredible, especially being able to celebrate it with my son.”

Brian and Rob take pride in being able to work together, especially teaching one another things every day. “I like being able to learn from Dad, and him learn from me. There’s many things we’ve taught one another over the last 25 years.”, said Rob.

When this duo was asked what their hobbies were outside of work, they were both quick to say “kids”. Rob has a son who is 12 and a daughter who is 6. “They keep us busy when they aren’t at their Grandparents.” However, they both take passion in camping, fixing and building things and being around family.

From a young age, Rob wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps. “I remember being 3 or 4, Dad used to bring home some sort of equipment after work. He’d walk in the house and yell “Common’ bud! Let’s go. I’d sit on his lap and we’d go for a little drive. As I got a little older, he showed me how to use the levers and see how it worked on my own.”

Rob and Brian are only two of the hundreds of generations of families at J.D. Irving!