When Richard Schaffrick first joined the Oliver Chronicle’s team, man had yet to walk on the moon, there was no Trans Canada Highway connecting the country, and the Toronto Maple Leafs still had four Stanley Cup championships ahead of them.
Schaffrick’s era with the Chronicle began in 1957 and he’s decided that at the end of 2016, it will be time to throw in the towel.
“In those days it was around a dollar an hour. But with a dollar you could go to a matinee show, get a pop and drink and have change leftover,” he recalled. “It’s all relative.”
Back then, when Schaffrick was in his late teens, printing a paper was a much messier job. When the pressmen of the day had just finished their final production of 1956 on New Year’s Eve, they left in a haste to chase work in the boom-town of Kitimat, leaving the shop in need of a thorough cleaning. So at the beginning of 1957 when Schaffrick came to the Chronicle looking for some weekend work on the advice of his high school principal, he was immediately welcomed onto the crew.
“It was lots of cleanup that took me all day. But by end of the day, I was biking home and I sort of knew, oh I like this work, and gee they even pay me for it.”
Even though it began as a dirty job, “I liked it right away from the beginning,” he said, adding that he found the smell of kerosene in the shop to be an added bonus.
Once Schaffrick worked his way up to the ranks of pressman, he found himself growing bored of the duties. But it wasn’t long before a new opportunity came knocking. One of the typesetters had a routine of leaving the Chronicle early on Fridays, as he was a Seven Day Adventist who couldn’t work after sundown, giving Schaffrick a chance to try new things.
“So one time I was messing around with the Linotype machine and I liked that a lot better than the press.”
Back in 2007 – when Schaffrick had only been with the Chronicle for a mere 50 years – it was estimated that he casted four billion letters of newspaper print. At that time he also tried to retire, but he left behind a power vacuum that no one else could fill.
“Things hadn’t worked out for the new replacement so I got called back in,” he said. “I had some mixed feelings about coming back in. But this time around I am definitely retired because I’m busy with the Okanagan Gleaners (Society).”
Through Gleaners, Schaffrick works to supply dried soup mixes to orphanages in struggling parts of the world and the northernmost Canadian communities.
Along with other volunteers, he cuts vegetables, dehydrates them, packages them and sends them abroad.
“There’s a shipment going off to Guatemala in February,” he said.
He’s also busy volunteering as a member of the local Lions Club, and helps to pick up and deliver meals for school children, along with his wife Linda.
The two of them are staunch supporters of the Farm-to-School program, which connects with students with local produce to encourage healthier eating habits.
Also, the Schaffricks both volunteer concession operations at the Oliver Arena, which raises money for the Lions.
“With that money we rent ice time from the regional district, and it enables the public, all ages, little kids, toddlers to elderly people to use the arena free of charge on Saturday and Sunday nights. And that includes free skates.”
The free skating runs from 5:30 p.m. to 6:45.
When he isn’t volunteering, Schaffrick will be using his extra free time to get much more reading done, and he plans on making more use of the library.
Schaffrick will be able to see more of his son and daughter, as well as his triplet grandchildren who live with his daughter in Summerland.
“The triplets are just finishing high school going to Okanagan College next year.”
But long before he was able to have grandchildren, Schaffrick first had to connect with his future wife. And the Chronicle brought his soulmate right to him.
“She applied for a job here as receptionist and got it,” he said. “Just like (Oliver Printing owner) Rob (Somerville), he met his wife here too.”
Richard and Linda were only Chronicle co-workers for a few months, though.
“We thought that was probably not the best idea for us to both work at the same place.”
And shortly thereafter, the two were hitched. While they only dated for a few months before their wedding at the Lutheran Church in Penticton, the Schaffricks have been happily married since 1968.
Asked how he knew Linda was the one, “It’s one of those things you know,” he said. “You have to be really sure nowadays or it can be really costly.”
Although the industry of print news is in an overall decline, Schaffrick said a good community newspaper will always be hard to beat.
“They’re close to the people. What they’re doing is a vital service. They’re writing community history on the run. That’s where I think the social media is flawed, a lot of it is just plain crap. Which unfortunately has become the standard for a lot of people.”
He said the Chronicle is in good hands right now under the thumb of “down-to-earth” publisher Bob Doull – the fourth of Schaffrick’s tenure – and the current editor Lyonel Doherty is doing a “super job.”
“I think Lyonel is another outstanding reporter. It’s not an easy job and he’s doing a very credible, responsible job.”
And while Schaffrick leaves behind a proud legacy, he says enough is enough after 60 years.
“But I won’t miss having to get up early in the morning on Wednesdays to take the papers to the post office.”
By Dan Walton
