Larry Eyler, maintenance technician III, is well recognized at Carroll Lutheran Village, and rightly so. He has been working full-time at the community for 40 years. He is looking forward to starting the next stage in life – retirement. Though, in his case, semi-retirement. He is reducing his full-time work schedule to PRN, helping the Facilities team when needed on Thursdays and Fridays.
Eyler started working at CLV in May 1982, when the community was still new and smaller than it is today – consisting of the Health Care Center and a couple of homes, and his first year was anything but easy. He actually had doubts about how long he would stay with CLV.
The summer of 1982 brought an intense heat wave, and a lot of maintenance projects required him to spend a lot of time in that summer heat, but the cooler fall air came, and he decided to “stay and try some more.”
Then the blizzard of 1982 arrived. He and the facilities supervisor were the only two in the department who were snowed in for four days working around the clock to keep one main road clear. “We didn’t have as much equipment back then as we do now,” said Eyler. Not surprisingly, he was back to wondering if he made the right decision, but as the department grew, he continued to “stay and try some more.”
“It’s funny how things get better, and you come to learn that even with a few problems you might have, you adjust and make the job what you want it to be. It’s what I’ve done over the years,” stated Eyler.
CLV’s residents and team members are thankful he continued to “stay and try some more” and he is too. “I love this village, this family, the residents and team members. They’re like a second home to me, which is very important when you have a job because it makes your job more important and comfortable too,” said Eyler.
Eyler even encouraged his family to work for CLV. His daughter worked for the community for 11 years, starting when she was in high school, in various positions in Culinary Services and administration. His grandson also worked for the Culinary Services team.
His advice to team members is to learn everything they can from their supervisors, fellow team members and vendors because anything they learn will benefit them in the future where ever they go.
We will hold off on saying goodbye to Eyler. Instead, we will say, see you around!
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