After Decades on the Docks, Gossett Concludes His Career

Andy Gossett has a professional background featuring words like port and marine. But as of June 30, Gossett traded in his title of director in the stevedoring area at Watco Greens Port for a non-maritime title: retiree.

Gossett started in the industry as a dockhand in 1992. Prior to 1992, he spent three years in the Marine Corps and roughly another 10 working in the service industry.

He came to Watco in 2018. His early work at the Houston marine terminal and industrial port involved writing sales quotes containing the scope and pricing details of project cargo work that the team was bidding on. Gossett’s extensive prior experience played an increasingly important role, leading to his directing port operations in various capacities.

“He’s been in commercial sales, operations, and support roles,” said Ernie Farrand, vice president of Greens Port Industrial Park, who’s been with Gossett throughout his Watco career. “I don’t know if we have enough pages to cover his impact. The legacy he’s leaving is the dozens and dozens of people he’s worked with and trained who’ll carry on his knowledge.”

Gossett’s latest focus has been on stevedoring. In fact, a major accomplishment for Gossett was assembling a stevedoring team by bringing in people who he knew had the work ethic and safety mindset that would be a fit at Watco. He said he’s proud of “being part of a team that started off with many talented members from different companies who came together into one of the safest and most technically proficient stevedoring groups in the world. I feel so fortunate to have been part of this team.”

With his departure from Watco, Gossett is turning to what comes next.

“My wife and I are going to go to Greece and Portugal for three weeks. And then after that, just volunteer work and consulting. Bike riding and golf are going to be my physical hobbies. And I’d like to work with at-risk youth. That would be another big part of retirement.”

Some retirees might fill time with passive television entertainment. Not Gossett. “I am going to keep very busy and not memorize all the ‘Dick Van Dyke’ reruns or the ‘I Love Lucy’ reruns. I hear that stuff is the death knell, so I’m not going to do that.”