East Lyme — Last month, town officials and co-workers recognized Bob Schultz, 66, sanitation foreman at the town’s Public Works Department, on his last day on the job.

In the middle of the afternoon, more than 70 people attended an informal celebration at the town garage at 8 Capitol Drive. Town officials including First Selectman Kevin Seery, Public Works Superintendent Justin Porter and Director Joe Bragaw, and police Chief Michael Finkelstein were in attendance.

Bob Schultz is a man of few words. He said he just followed the same routine every day, but offered a few highlights from his career: plowing during the Blizzard of 1978 and working through Hurricane Gloria in late September 1985.

Schultz had served as laborer, sanitation worker and then sanitation foreman for the town Highway Department, which is part of the Public Works Department — working a total of 47 years — following in the footsteps of his father, Ted, who had started working for Public Works in 1950 and served for 44 years.

Seery, the 10th first selectman of Bob Schultz's tenure, presented a special town proclamation that pointed out the unmatched 91 years that Schultz and his father collectively worked for the department.

“It’s very uncommon,” Bragaw said. “You don’t see this happen anymore. People don’t stay in places that long.”

Schultz's family and friends said his dedication was unmatched.

Porter said he was fortunate to have known both Schultzes while both worked at the department together and reflected on the fact that it was probably the last time he would witness this type of loyalty. He said there were two other public works employees who had been in their roles such a long time; one worked 50 years and the other worked 44 years for the town.

“That’s a dying breed of person,” he said. “You don’t find that kind of commitment and dedication anymore.”

Bragaw believes that Bob Schultz’s interpersonal skills with the Highway Department, recycling and mechanics, as well as the general public, made an impact on the community at large.

“For us, he was always a good resource and personality. He was entertaining and funny. At the same time, he did what he needed to do,” Finkelstein said. “He’ll be missed. I wish him the best of luck in his retirement.”

Bob Schultz’s son, Bobby Schultz, now 36, fondly remembered as a child that his friends begged him to tell his father not to “plow so hard” because they wanted snow days.

He also thought his father was a hero.

“He was basically a local celebrity. It was a lot of fun,” he said, referring to people waving at him on the street when he was plowing. Sometimes they called out “Schultzy!” to him.

“Even in Massachusetts, when you go to the Big E, he knows somebody somewhere,” Bobby Schultz added.

Linda Schultz, 61, who has been married to Bob Schultz for 41 years, remembered the sacrifices he and their family made while he was on the job during snowstorms.

“I always prayed that it didn’t snow on Christmas,” she said, recalling the time he drove home with the plow during a brief break, just so he could be there when his son and daughter, Catie, opened their presents.

But Linda Schultz described herself as “the snow widow” because she was often home alone with the kids for Christmas and New Year. He would get the call in the early hours after midnight, and could be gone for three days plowing during and after storms.

“When there’s a Nor’Easter, people don’t realize the amount of hours they put in. They complain why the roads are not plowed,” Linda Schultz said, referring to the nonstop plowing that must be done.

She is pleased that there will no longer be calls in the middle of the night.

“He’s worked hard all his life," she said. "He’s a dedicated worker and a great dad.”

According to Linda Schultz, her husband started working for Public Works in 1975 as an 18-year-old. He was a summer worker until he became a full-time employee, and worked alongside his father when Ted Schultz became a foreman. He also worked a part-time second job at the Sears warehouse when she was pregnant with their daughter, she said.

His wife described Bob Schultz as a “superhero like Hulk Hogan” because he was known to lift couches, refrigerators and stoves without the use of lift gates, which raise and lower a truck for loading, when he made his bulk waste pickups around town during Clean-Up Week. Before that mechanism was installed by the town in 2004, manually picking up bulk waste throughout East Lyme used to take one month.

“He will not be able to just lay around. He and I are different that way,” former co-worker Tom Stanton, 67, who retired from Public Works three and a half years ago, said about Bob Schultz’s upcoming retirement days. They used to go on the rides together around town, when it took two people to do sanitation pickup — one person drove while the other held on at the back of the truck and disposed the contents of each trash bin into the truck.

Zeb Jones, 62, who has worked for the department for 33 years, appreciates that the rubbish trucks are now better for workers' backs. He also recalled a time when everything was buried, even metal, before the current recycling efforts. “The whole dump was a community of its own,” he said.

Marc Morgan, 51, described Bob Schultz as “a very easy-going boss, on of the best bosses” that he has ever had. He appreciated the fact that he was never micro-managed.

“Are you ready for this? He’s going to be home an awful lot,” another Public Works employee said while walking past Linda Schultz, who is still working as food services director at Chartwells for Plainfield Public Schools.

In addition to the town proclamation, the town gifted Bob Schultz a gold trash bin, a road sign that reads “Schultz’s Way” and lawn signs placed around town celebrating his 47 years of service.

"I'll probably go fishing and clamming. I have a lot of work to do around the house, like gardening," Bob Schultz said about his retirement plans. “I’m going to miss it. It’s been a long ride."