It’s been 42 years of working for the city of Vancouver, but never a dull moment.
Even weeks before he retires Murray Wightman is busy as usual, making sure the city keeps moving.
“I love the action that we get,” said Wightman. “As I have said to my superintendents and new superintendents as they come, a phone call changes your day.”
Wightman was only 16 years old when he began working in the city of Vancouver operations department, and he worked his way up through the ranks to operations manager.
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He’s best known for keeping city streets clear of snow.
Many changes have shaped in the city over the past four decades, and some of Wightman’s favourite memories were also defining moments for Vancouver – Right from Expo’86 to the 2010 Olympics.
“To see everybody walking around in shorts and tank tops and everything for certain parts of the three weeks, it was great,” said Wightman. “I was very pleased that we didn’t have any sort of snow event. It really would have put a damper on all kinds of things.”
But there were less than stellar moments in his career. When he had to help the city he loves recover from rioters and protesters was one example, but the surprise was when the public stepped up to help his crews.
“The response that we had the next day from the public was just incredible,” said Wightman. “I didn’t expect the help with the clean-up like they did.”
Murray Wightman’s last day is March 7. No one has been hired to replace him, but they will be big shoes to fill.
– With files from Jennifer Palma
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