Robert 'Bob' Caldwell has worked at the same company for nearly 50 years. (Tyler Marr/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Tyler Marr

A HALF-CENTURY ON

‘Everyday is different’: Bob Caldwell marks nearly half-century with same company

Apr 30, 2019 | 5:12 PM

In 1969, Pierre Trudeau was the prime minister, Richard Nixon was the president and The Archies Sugar, Sugar was topping the charts.

And on Oct. 6, Robert ‘Bob’ Caldwell was hired by the to work at the Boyd Brothers General Motors dealership in North Battleford. Almost 50 years later, the company has changed owners and names, but he is still there.

His brother was working in the service department and they had fallen short a labourer. Caldwell was working on a grain farm in the southeast corner of the province and asked if we wanted to come work.

He agreed, but on the Friday before he was set to start, an employee left the body shop, so they shuffled him into the role. Three months later, when he was supposed to move over to the service side of operations, another employee left the body shop.

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“As surprising as it seems, every day is different,” he told battlefordsNOW at an event marking his half-century with the auto dealer Tuesday. “Every job is different and there isn’t a day that goes by that you don’t try to learn a better way of doing it.”

Over the last five decades, Caldwell said there have been massive changes in the tools used and technology applied to repairs. The paints, he said, have also changed from alkaline enamel paints to base and clear coating, which is much tougher.

While the basic premise of repairing damage has not changed, the 67-year-old said the extent to what is repaired has.

“If a vehicle came in with a damaged door, you came in and fixed the door and painted the door and that is it,” he said. “Now, if you repair a door, you take the handle and everything off and the adjacent panels on either said as well. … It is a factory job now, there is no masking and lines visible.”

Vehicles, he said, are now build much more precise.

“In 1969, the window moulding had a decent gap and you could mask it but everything fits much tighter now,” he said.

Though 50 years will come and go in the fall, Caldwell anticipates he will remain until the end of 2019 at Rainbow Toyota.

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tyler.marr@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JournoMarr