Man Retires After 60 Years At Same Job

Next year will mark the KOOL 107.9's 20th anniversary.  It will also mark my 20th year with the station. Twenty years with the same company by today's standards seems like a long time until I heard about Winton Dahlin.

You see, Winton Dahlin just retired after 60 years with the same company.  He began working at machinery manufacturer Forsberg's Inc. in 1952.

According to a story in the Grand Forks Herald, when asked why he kept working so long, the 82 year-old Dahlin replied, "I liked what I was doing, so as long as I was able-bodied and they wanted me around, I figured I'd stay."

Dahlin went part-time a couple of years ago and up to that point routinely showed up at work at 4 a.m. He said it wasn't a problem for him because he was an early bird and routinely woke at 1 a.m. each day. Incidentally, his bedtime was routinely 5 p.m. There's nothing like a full eight hours sleep to make you productive and useful at work.

I figured out that if I wanted to match Dahlin's record I'd have to stay on the air another 40 years and I'd be in my nineties before I retired. Dahlin can keep his 60 year tenure and me, well maybe 50 years is a more reachable goal.