Half-century-long career comes to a close for Residence Facilities Maintainer

Gunter Diehl started working at McMaster because of a girl, but not in the way you might expect.

Gunter was seeing Margaret, who he had met at Hamilton’s Coronation Pool in 1967. Margaret’s father worked at McMaster and thought that if young Gunter was working, he might just leave his daughter alone. Gunter got the job. And Gunter married Margaret two years later.

He figures that when he started as a 16-year-old, he was likely the youngest person on campus – even younger than the students attending the university. He recalls how one of his first tasks was planting the evergreen seedlings around the Campus Services Building. Next time you walk by those towering trees, you may just think of Gunter’s first days on the job.

And now, as he prepares to retire from his role as Residence Facilities Maintainer in Housing & Conference Services in his 51st year, Gunter’s had the extraordinary perspective of seeing the campus change in ways few of us ever will.

He remembers the football field streakers in the 60s. He recalls how in the 70s, it was all the long-haired men, not the women, who clogged the residence building shower drains.

It was this extraordinary career that the team in Housing & Conference Services celebrated on Friday, September 22, at the University Club. Colleagues past and present from across University departments gathered to commemorate his many years of service, and share a few memories.

A scholarship fund has been set up in his name to help in-need students who have been a Crown Ward pay for residence.

When Gunter leaves campus for the last time on September 30, Margaret’s impressive “honey-do” list awaits him. She looks forward to having him home and keeping him busy.

After all, as she puts it, he’s been “married to McMaster longer than me.”