It took Paul Scott about six months in 1989 to realize he wasn’t the retiring type.
“I can’t sit around and not be doing something,” said the 72-year- old, who has been honored as Colorado’s Outstanding Older Worker for 2005. “I need to be active. That keeps me going.”
Born on a farm near Alma, Neb., on Aug. 12, 1933, and raised on a series of his family’s farms in Colorado, Scott is steeped with the ethic of long days and hard work. It’s what he does. It’s who he is. It’s what makes him happy.
And he isn’t planning on giving it up anytime soon.
“I’m having too much fun now,” he said.
Unbeknownst to him, Scott was nominated by a co-worker at Group Publishing Inc. of Loveland to be this year’s Experience Works Inc. Outstanding Older Worker for Colorado.
So it came as a surprise to him when he won.
“All of a sudden, they called and said I was the one.”
Anne Walker, a training specialist at the company, which publishes Christian literature, nominated Scott for the honor. She has nominated him before too.
“Paul is always cheerful and willing to help,” Walker said. “He’s nice to have around. He’ll do anything for anybody.”
Walker considers him “a great role model.”
Not just a role model, but an inspiration, according to Group Publishing’s chief executive, Thom Schultz.
“Here’s an older guy who probably can run circles around many younger people and does it with such a happy and contagious spirit,” Schultz said.
With the honor, Scott won a trip to Washington, D.C., where he attended an awards banquet with award winners from other states.
“I was one of the younger ones. The average age was about 80,” Scott said. “The oldest gentleman there was 100, and he still has four sporting- goods stores in Iowa and Nebraska.”
Scott tried early retirement in 1989, when his job of 22 years with IBM in Boulder was moved out of state and he didn’t want to move with it.
“Six months later I applied for and got a job at Group Publishing as a maintenance man,” he said.
He enjoys working, and retirement isn’t on his mind.
“It’s like a big family,” he said. “I look forward to getting up in the morning and going to work.”
The septuagenarian has become an integral part of the company’s culture, with his hard work and personal spirit, Schultz said.
“He is one of those guys who is a true humble person,” Schultz said. “He does whatever he does cheerfully, and he sticks with it until he’s done.”
But it’s not just work that keeps him going. Scott is a busy man.
He and his wife, Mary, a dozen years his junior, work with children every Sunday at their church, Church of the Good Shepherd in Loveland.
They’ve been on two or three mission trips for the church – last year going to Thailand, where they worked with children at an orphanage.
The Scotts have two daughters – one lives in Thornton and one in Denver – but no grandchildren.
“Someday, maybe, we’ll have some grandchildren,” he said. In the meantime, “We practice with other people’s grandchildren.”
He also serves as treasurer of Motivation for Ministry.
“We’ve done a lot of lay ministry,” Scott said. “We’re on the go most of the time.”
Staff writer Jim Kirksey can be reached at 303-820-1448 or jkirksey@denverpost.com.
