Obituary: Steve Edwards
Steve Edwards, an HDD consultant with Digital Control Inc., passed away Oct. 28, 2007, at his home in Sandton, South Africa, at the age of 52 after a two-year battle with cancer.
Edwards was one of the most respected names in the horizontal directional drilling (HDD) industry. He was one of the pioneers in the HDD industry and he drilled all over the world — the United States, United Kingdom, Europe, Middle East, Asia and Africa, to name just a few places.
He was born on Aug. 9, 1955, in Kettering, England. Edwards joined the British Armed Forces at 15 and served for two years before going to work on a farm. His first job in the construction industry was as a bulldozer operator with Shanks and McEwen’s, a job that paved the way to his future career in the heavy construction industry, then into engineering before finding his true calling in the pipe installation industry.
Shortly after this, Edwards’ career turned him towards his passion for the HDD industry when he went to work for the FlowMole Corp. in England, now known as UTILX. After four years at FlowMole with its small directional drill rigs, Edwards went to work for FlowTex GUT in Germany where he graduated to larger, 20-plus ton size rigs. He eventually worked on rigs as large as 400 tons and he became proficient at mud motoring and the sophisticated wireline guidance systems used on large-scale HDD installations.
Edwards went into business for himself for a few years as an HDD consultant before DCI hired him and his wife, Claudia, to set up a branch office in Germany (DCI GmbH).
The success of the German office inspired DCI to ask Steve and Claudia to help open another branch office, this time in India (DCI India Pvt Ltd).
Much of this work was completed after Edwards was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. In his last year, he not only set up the India office, but he traveled to Dubai, Egypt, Germany and the United States.
Edwards is survived by his mother Dorothy, his wife, Claudia, his daughter, Samantha, his stepfather, Emrys, and his two half-brothers, Brian and Richard.
