Retiree Ends a Record Streak
It may be hard to believe, but Roy Okamura hasn’t missed a day of work during his 30 years as a forklift operator at Sysco Food Services.
He’ll have his day soon, though; Okamura, 68, retired last week.
Monday, he won’t rise before dawn to get to work by 6 a.m., as he’s done every weekday since May 15, 1961, except for vacations. He won’t walk briskly around the block for exercise before hopping on the orange-and-black forklift and unloading crates of frozen food from delivery trucks.
Instead, he and his wife, Loy, plan to relax and travel to Japan for the first time to see relatives.
Company officials say Okamura is the only one of the 924 employees at the company’s Walnut division with a spotless attendance record.
“It’s phenomenal,” said Michael Ducharm, Sysco’s director of transportation and Okamura’s former supervisor. “He’s worked days when he had the flu.”
Indeed, on Thursday morning, Okamura showed up for work as usual, even though his throat was so sore that he could barely talk. Another time, co-workers said, a heavy carton fell on Okamura, knocking him down. His head was bleeding, but Okamura got up and went back to work.
During a break Thursday, Okamura said his work ethic hails from his days as a potato farmer in his native Pocatello, Ida., during the 1940s.
“When you’re a farmer, you’ve just got to keep going,” Okamura whispered. “If you sit back, you’re just gonna go broke.”
Dressed in his normal work attire--gray golf hat, lined denim jacket and rubber leg guards--Okamura said he’s taken aback by all the fuss about his attendance record. Even when Sysco awarded him a plaque last year, he didn’t bother hanging it up in his Los Angeles home because he said he would feel uncomfortable displaying it.
Co-workers, however, weren’t so low-key about their colleague. “They don’t make men like that anymore,” said receiving clerk Carlos Vidal.
“We’re gonna put him in the Guinness Book of World Records,” Stanley Robinowitz said.
Okamura smiled, shrugged his shoulders and went back to work.
