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03/29/2017 08:30 AMAfter close to 33 years of service, William “Chris” Willard is retiring from Public Works on March 31, and it is clear that he will be missed.
Chris first saw the chance to come on board with the town when a friend told him about a job as a police mechanic in 1984. He said he would work on the police cars and fix just about anything that broke down, including heavy equipment.
He has always been mechanically inclined, and began working on little motors when he was a kid. He said he started by helping his dad keep the lawnmower running, and his grandfather was also skilled mechanically and taught him not to be afraid of machines.
From there, he began working on cars, including one of his first cars, a 1971 GTO.
“I kick myself for selling it, but it was costing me too much money,” he says with a smile.
In addition to fixing anything he is asked to, Chris has been a back-up plow truck driver during snow storms, and has done just about every route in town. Although that job has its challenges, such as mailboxes getting knocked down due to heavy snow, he says it’s the departments’ job to keep the roads safe for all town residents.
However, it’s not an entirely thankless job. Chris says he and the department get thank you notes from residents, and one resident in particular will send them baked goods.
“She does it for the love of doing it, and we like the product,” he says. “It’s really nice, and it makes you feel like someone does care.”
It’s also clear that Chris’ co-workers care for him as well.
“He is a staple of our garage, and he will be greatly missed for his experience and knowledge,” says Public Works Field Operations Director Victor Palma.
Another person who concurred was Public Works foreman Ken Rupley, who notes that he and Chris have worked together for 30 years, and worked hard to keep everything running properly, including things like 20-year-old dump trucks.
“He’s a great guy, a family man, and he’s got a heart of gold,” Rupley says. “He’d do anything for anybody, and I mean it.”
If that wasn’t enough proof of Chris’s work ethic and dedication, he is also a cancer survivor, and has been in remission for about 20 years. He still has some lung problems, and he can get sick during the winter time, but he fights it and doesn’t let that stop him from doing his job.
Staying healthy is one of the reasons why he is retiring from mechanics, but he is not retiring completely. Chris is taking a job selling parts, which will see him working behind a computer rather than under a hood.
“I’m not going to stop working; I couldn’t do that,” he says. “I’ve been working since I was a kid.”
Chris and his wife Diane have three children; James and Matthew and a daughter, Elizabeth. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree with his sons. One installs pools, and the other is in construction management, and he said both have taken on his work ethic.
Chris said he used to do work at home in his Blue Sky Garage. He said that he and his kids would build cars and trucks together, and that both of his sons still work on things like snow blowers and lawnmowers.
“They’re not afraid to get their hands dirty,” he says.
One way that Chris will be remembered at the Public Works garage is that he got to select the number for one of the newer Public Works trucks. There is now a truck numbered 58, referencing the year that he was born (1958).
Chris says that the fact he is retiring hasn’t hit him yet, but he’s sure it will by the time he takes his toolbox out of the garage at the end of the month. Still, he looks back fondly at all the years he’s spent there.
“I feel proud of what I did here,” he says. “Sometimes I think back to all of the friends I’ve met through here, and it’s going to be missed.”