Retirement is no big vacation for Philip Hussey '53. Last fall, after giving up his chair as president and CEO of the Hus-sey Seating Company, one of the leading suppliers of spectator seating in the world, he headed off to the Far East--on business. "We realized we can give better service if we're in the same time zone," said Hussey, whose family-owned company has been operating in North Berwick, Maine, for 162 years. Every year, Hussey says, a company officer calls on its network of distributors in Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, China and Taiwan. They're building school gymnasiums, theaters, stadiums as they hurry to westernize and as professional sports catch on. Hussey, who remains chairman of the board, sees the same expansion of business in Australia and New Zealand, Europe, Asia and South America and says he feels "a lot of personal pride." The company seats more than 5 million people around the world. They've built stadium seats for the 1976 Olympics in Montreal and the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympics and for the Capetown Civic Center in South Africa. With operations in England and Canada, a plastics company in Massachusetts and a sales company in Portsmouth, N.H., the five operating units or profit centers now employ about 550 people, Hussey says, and are doing $80-million worth of business. He and his brother, Peter '57, the company's executive vice president, are the fifth generation of Husseys to lead the business their great-great-grandfather started in 1835 as a manufacturer of agricultural plows. The brothers "have taken our shot at it and improved the company," Hussey said, and now it's in the hands of the sixth generation. Last summer his son Tim '78 became company president and CEO. His daughter, Anne '80, is general manager of Hussey Products Company, and another son, Jonathan, is with Hussey Plastics Company. Richard '88 is a teacher. At a testimonial dinner last May, the Maine Council of Churches honored the company for its more than 160 years of service to the community and for the exemplary standards by which the generations of the Hussey family, descended from Quaker farmers who came from England in the late 17th century, have conducted business. "The important thing is that we've maintained the family tradition and a relationship with the town and the people who work for us," said Hussey. He believes that the company's history "speaks well for an ethically managed operation that tries to conduct itself by the golden rule. We haven't short-circuited those old Quaker ethics." Hussey served six years on Colby's Board of Trustees and received both a Colby Gavel and a Colby Brick. In 1995 all the family members who attended Colby, including Philip Hussey's wife, Martha (DeWolf '55), established the Hussey Family Scholarship, which stipulates a preference for students from Maine. Hussey says his father, Philip Sr. '13, always had a strong attachment to the College because President Roberts gave him credit for his tuition. "My father paid it back," he said. "We've maintained that tradition, too."