"I'm actually going through a bit of a withdrawal of everything. But I like the backyard. I like to sit there with a cup of coffee," says Keith Koberinski over tea in his dining room. After 19 years as a board member for Light of Christ School Division, he's taking it easy. Last October, Koberinski decided not to run for re-election for a seventh term and instead enjoy the full benefits of retirement. At 74, he's full of life and — perhaps more importantly — time. Which is an experience he says he can get used to.
"The best thing about what we have now is that we have time. My grandson, who lives in Battleford, says 'come over for a cup of tea' and we can go, we don't need to check," says Koberinski, who retired from the Department of Highways in 1997 before running for election for the Light of Christ school board. There are other bonuses when it comes to retirement, too.
"We can sleep in until 9 a.m.," Koberinski says with a laugh.
With life slowing down some for Koberinski, there's now ample time to reflect.
"I like to write my thoughts down," he says. Koberinski has always enjoyed writing and often writes out his thoughts in a journal, on Twitter or on his blog, but with the freedom of free time, his longtime hobby has been channeled into writing a book. Now, with the intention of people other than himself reading it, Koberinski challenges himself while writing.
"I'll be sitting there and a thought will come to me and I'll write it down, but I look at it and think 'it doesn't look the way I want it,' so I change it a little bit," Koberinski says, explaining his writing process.
Without giving much away, Koberinski says the book will be an autobiography of sorts. Though he does admit that, so far in his narration, he's reached when he leaves his family farm in Sinnett at 17 years of age.
After graduating from high school in 1961, Koberinski's mind first landed on teaching, as, he recalls, he felt that his parents wanted him to "do something special."
With farming profits not the same as they are today, his plan for the future wasn't meant to be, he explained.
"I was going to be a teacher, but we ran out of money."
Then it was decided that he would apply for a job to save money for school, though that plan, too, eventually changed.
"I was going to work for a year to go to school," says Koberinski, before adding with a smile, "when you're a farm boy and you get your first pay cheque, it's kind of fun."
The job turned out to be his career, but his future would turn again to education eventually.
"The highway was getting built about 10 miles from my mom and dad's farm. I got a call from the Department of Highways – I had applied all over for jobs – they said they needed someone the next day."
That first year, Koberinski was hired in August for the rest of summer as a soil technician. When he was asked back the following year it was to a permanent position.
In 1965, Koberinski came to North Battleford as part of his job working for highways.
"They brought a whole bunch of people in to North Battleford and I just stayed here. I never even got transferred. I've been here ever since."
And he's still happy to call it home. In that same year he met and married his wife, Linda, who Koberinski cheekily describes as a "cool lady," and they had three children, Scott, Pam and Lisa.
Although he essentially fell into his job working with the Department of Highways, Koberinski says he wouldn't have it any other way.
"I liked what I did and it was an awesome life. I was out on the road all the time and for the last 20 years I was basically my own supervisor and had my own crew."
Koberinski has a romanticized view of those first years out on the road and the freedom that seemed to come from travelling all over the province, sometimes in remote wilderness.
"I always considered ourselves as the last explorers. Up to the ‘70s, it was kind of like the last frontier," says Koberinski.
"There's some good stories, a lot of the good ones are up north. Some of them I don't want to say," he jokes.
With freedom and a constant change of scene as definite bonuses to building highways for a living, perhaps the most satisfying aspect of the job for Koberinski was interacting with people from across the province.
As part of the process of building a highway, there must be a contact person who speaks to the owners of the land the government wishes to purchase.
Koberinski took a shine to acting as the intermediary between the government and the landowners. Koberinski describes himself as "a people person" who "likes meeting people" and that proved true in his time working for highways. Sometimes tensions between the two parties ran high, but Koberinski's talent was in finding common ground and having people's voices heard. As he says about himself, "I'm an underdog kind of guy."
Beyond just work, there was always an opportunity while on the road to meet new people, says Koberinski.
"Say you'd go into Meadow Lake. There'd be travelling salesmen and highway people and power crews and telephone crews. A lot of those people were just sitting around at night, so we'd visit and have a few beers."
While his job kept him away from home for five days at a time, Koberinski credits his wife with raising the kids. "She's the hero of the family," he says.
Though Koberinski worked with the highway department for 35 years before retiring in 1997, he wasn't quite ready to retire quietly. Within a month he'd agreed, after a neighbour asked him, to run for the Catholic school board.
Once again Koberinski found himself in a role that allowed him to be an intermediary. What first attracted him to running for election was the feeling of making a positive difference and fulfilling a civic duty. "As I got going," he recalls. "I loved the staff. Not a big fan of meetings, but I like the people," he admitted wryly.
Over the 19 years he served on the board, during which time he also served four years on the Saskatchewan School Board Association and two as the president of the Board of Catholic School Trustees, Koberinski is most proud of his work to bring the staff and board together.
"I didn't want it to be them over there and us over here," he says. "I wanted them heard and I wanted to make them feel like they're important.
"Sometimes we can be over here making the rules, we make the rules but we don't know how it affects other people."
Overall, giving 19 years of his time was positive for Koberinski.
"I've enjoyed my time," he says. "With my years with the Catholic school board, I've been across Canada and I've talked to people all over the province and I know people in every part of this province that I can call a friend."
Since leaving the board last October, Koberinski says he still sometimes misses being in the know, but, he concludes, "19 years is a long time. When you walk away, you walk away."
Nowadays, when the couple ventures around town, Koberinski says he will usually sees a friend out and about. North Battleford has been home for the Koberinskis for 51 years, with their cozy house often the base around which the kids, grandkids and great-grandkids orbit.
"I've had a rich life. I always say, when my family comes over, I could die tomorrow and I'd have been happy."
