Having been driving kids to and from school for 55 years, Murray Poffenroth is hanging up the keys for good, announcing his retirement from Rocky View Schools as a bus driver. 

Poffenroth, who is one of the very few remaining contracted bus drivers, says his career started a few decades back. 

“I started in the fall of 1967 driving for Calgary School Division, which is now called Rocky View Schools (RVS).” 

Poffenroth officially became a contracted bus driver for RVS In 1969. 

“There were very few of the buses that they (RVS) still owned. They wanted to dispose of them and have independent contractors run them. At that time, I bought that bus from the school division and became a contractor.” 

From 1981 to 2008 Poffenroth actually had two buses, he drove one of them and had a driver for the other one. 

Poffenroth says operations are based out of Irricana. He drove the bus to Kathryn for over 40 years but now drives the bus to Beiseker.  

Over his lengthy career, Poffenroth says he has taken three generations of one family to and from school. When asked about one memory that sticks out in his head, he remembers a bad snowstorm in May. 

“On May 13, 1986, a snowstorm blew in later that night. Somewhere before midnight, and by 4 am on the 14th you could barely see anything. We'd had a pile of snow and wind at that time.” 

Poffenroth says he remembers getting a phone call from the transportation supervisor so early in the morning because the supervisor knew he would be the only person up at the time. 

“That was on a Tuesday night when the storm came in. We were unable to run the buses the rest of that week.” 

Poffenroth, who has a family farm just south of Irricana, was always up super early to take care of his pure-bred cattle business. He also operated a grain farm with the help of his family. 

He will miss the kids once the school year is over. 

“I'll also miss the support of the parents. In a lot of cases, they were there if you needed them.” 

Poffenroth says he thanks the Lord for watching over him and his family being so supportive over the past 55 years. 

“It's not just me, it's a variety of people that have helped make it happen.” 

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