Dale Wilson, a 20-year veteran of the Erlanger Public Works Department, including serving as the department’s Operations Director for the past 10 years, recently announced his retirement.
Wilson, who started working for the city as maintenance tech on Oct. 9, 2000, retired from the city exactly 20 years later on Oct. 9, 2020.
As maintenance tech, Wilson’s primary responsibility was cutting grass and providing landscaping duties in the city’s parks, right-of-ways, and other city-owned greenspace. Before joining Erlanger, he had prior experience in this field after working for years for this father’s landscaping business and as a young man on his father’s and uncle’s farms in Campbell County.
Dale Wilson
Wilson worked his way up to the position of Operations Manager, where he managed a crew of 10 people whose duties include cutting grass, removing snow, leaf collection, street maintenance, and other maintenance and public-works jobs in the city.
“Dale was, first and foremost, a true Christian man; you clearly knew that by talking to him and working with him,” said Erlanger Public Works Director Peter Glenn.
“He was very detailed oriented and took his job very seriously. He led by example and those who worked with him respected him and looked up to him.”
Wilson said he took the job with Erlanger after working more than 20 years in stints with Shock Tile & Marble in Western Hills and steel-manufacturing companies L.B. Foster and Victory Tube Co.
“Erlanger was good to me and I grew a lot from the experience, learning different things from every public works director I worked with,” he said. “It’s never too late to learn to do things in a better way and that’s what workers and their leaders should strive for – to raise the bar and reach for the stars.”
Public Works Director Glenn found Wilson to be “incredibly open-minded” about trying new approaches.
“When I came here from the City of Florence, I brought a lot of new ideas, approaches, and philosophies with me,” Glenn said. “Dale was very open to this and acquiesced to implementing the things I wanted to do. Not everyone is able to do that, especially as they get older and set in their ways, but this was no problem for Dale.”
Wilson, who is married with three grown children, has lived in Campbell County his entire life. He graduated from Campbell County High School in 1977. Glenn said the Wilson never missed a day of school in 12 years and that he exhibited that same dedication and attendance as an employee at the City of Erlanger.
Wilson said he recently bought a small, 16-acre farm in Campbell County, where he plans to spend his time in retirement working on the land and enjoying time there with his four grandchildren.
City of Erlanger
