People of McMaster celebrates the incredible people who help make McMaster a great place to work, learn, teach and conduct research. This is the fifth instalment of this series. Click here for the previous story.

Among the 300 acres of McMaster greenspace, you’ll find Gary Moscardini.

For over 30 years, he has cared for campus — keeping it clean as a custodian, keeping it working as a tradesperson and now, as a full-time gardener, keeping it beautiful throughout the seasons.  

The work is demanding, but for Gary, recipient of the 2024 President’s Award for Outstanding Service, caring for campus is more than just a job. If you ever doubt someone could still be passionate about their work after 30 years, just look at his gardens.  

In 2023, I spent my summer as a student gardener. As we pulled weeds and planted flowers, Gary’s positive, sociable attitude, humour and exceptional attention to detail were obvious to the student staff.  

“He likes to joke around a lot. Yeah, he was a lot of fun but also really cared about doing things the right way,” says Matthew McLennan, another former student on Gary’s crew.  

Gary loves to learn and is also an exceptional mentor himself. He is always looking for ways to connect with new people and help students come out of their shells. 

“He was friendly with everyone and when you have that kind of leadership setting the tone, it’s easier to make core connections yourself,” says McLennan. 

Here, Gary talks about building a career that he truly enjoys.   

How did you find yourself working at McMaster?  

In the past, I owned a landscaping company, so I was interested in gardening already, but it was really a family member — my father-in-law, Victor, who had worked here for about 20 years — who recommended that I apply to Mac. So I applied and started part-time in the custodial department with hopes to eventually move up.

That was 30, almost 31 years ago now. It appealed to me because I knew there were some opportunities to move around through positions and improve myself.  

How has working at McMaster influenced your growth?  

I was originally a custodian for my first 12 years. Within that department I moved up to lead hand, until an opportunity came up for me to become a trades helper. While I was in trades, I did some schooling at Mohawk College where I took a carpentry course and a whole bunch of HVAC courses.  

When I started part-time in grounds, I took some more courses in horticulture and arboriculture, so I was ready when a full-time gardening job came up and that’s what I’m presently in.  

I was given multiple opportunities to climb the ladder and further my education and that’s what I wanted, so I took the initiative to do that. 

On a more personal level, I have two sons of my own and they saw me going back to school at a little bit of a later age in life — around 30-ish — and it was the kind of thing I hoped to see in them. I wanted them to continue on with their education and it made me feel good to be doing that myself.  

It’s not easy when you’re working full-time and you’re going to night school. There’s a lot of work involved, but I was doing something where I could educate myself and excel with my job and in life in general.  

What is your personal outlook when it comes to how you do things at McMaster from day to day? 

Well, in terms of my daily life, I honestly like what I do. I leave work on a more positive note at the end of the day and bring that positivity home to my family.

I like to be outside and I like having structure. I get to interact with lots of different people and be social, too.  

To add on to what I was saying before, improving myself through further education was another big priority to me, and McMaster is very good about it if you want to continue on with your education or try different career growths. It’s really easy with that kind of workplace to go home and feel happy.  

Nothing’s perfect. No jobs are perfect — we all know that — but overall, I can speak for myself and probably many other people when I say that, as a whole, McMaster is a very nice institution to work for. There are a lot of pluses and positives here.  

How do you feel connected to the McMaster community? 

I like to volunteer for things where I can. I’ve gone to help out at the Ronald McDonald house in the past. I help out with the community garden, too. There are a bunch of volunteers that run it and they call me quite a bit to ask for my advice or get them some materials and help out, which I do. I try to give as much as I can back to the community. 

I’ve also had the opportunity, twice, to work with students with disabilities. McMaster was running a program where I had a student come work with me who had autism. That was a new sort of challenge because there’s a lot of learning to do about the person’s disability, so you’ve got to change the way you do things sometimes, learn how to talk with different people and I enjoyed it.  

Over maybe five or six years, I had two students with autism come work with me. It was challenging, but it feels good to help someone learn new skill sets.

How is your personality reflected in what you do here? 

I think the campus is beautiful, I know that attracts a lot of students. It’s clean, it’s safe. There are a lot of trees and gardens, there’s a lot of colour. I get to choose my own plants and I try to use bee- and butterfly-friendly ones that support the environment.  

I try to bring a lot of positivity to my department in general. I think a lot of my coworkers would say that I’m an easy person to get along with. I’m outgoing and like to be social. I like to joke around with my students and my coworkers and managers.  

Overall, I try to be a happy person and share that wealth among others. 

What do you see for yourself in the future?  

Down the road, I could maybe see myself as one of the head gardeners or a lead hand of the department. I would be happy teaching some of the new people that come aboard in our department as people retire.  

Maybe I could do the odd night school course, too. This job is a never-ending learning experience and if you think you know everything, you don’t. So yes, I could see myself doing more schooling or moving to a higher position, but still within my department.  

I don’t know that there are very many people in the world who can truly say they love their job, but I do.  

I feel very attached to the campus, the university, the gardens, the plants, the trees, the shrubs, the flowers — the whole gauntlet of that. I plan to retire out of McMaster, but I still have a number of years left.  

I just feel really happy to be doing what I do and there’s not much worth more than that. 

You reap what you sow: A note from the author

Taking a note from Gary’s playbook, I’ve found myself transitioning from one position to another within the university to pursue my own passion — writing.

One of the biggest highlights to come from my current position as a communications intern after having worked on grounds, is having the opportunity to share stories like these — stories of the incredible people I’ve had the privilege to know and work with at McMaster.  

Even as I’ve moved around within Facility Services, working on grounds will always be one of my favorite experiences because of the culture that Gary and other leaders of the grounds team had created.

I see Gary’s story as a reminder that you really do reap what you sow — when you lead with passion and positivity, you can cultivate not just a fulfilling career, but a meaningful and lasting impact on the people and community around you.