March 28, 2024

50 years and still going strong

When someone spends 50 years of their life working for a company, people tend to take notice. That is exactly what Steve Shelton has done at H&R Block throughout his five decades of work there.

Shelton is originally from Minnesota but came to call Newton home after attending college, spending time in the United States Army and landing a job with Maytag in 1966. Shelton worked in data processing at Maytag and since then he never looked back.

“Hard to get rid of at that point,” Shelton said with a chuckle.

Not only would Shelton work at Maytag, he would also go on to pick up a side gig with H&R Block in 1971. Shelton said there are parallels between his work at Maytag and what he has done at H&R Block for 50 years.

“It is something I enjoyed. It gave me something to do during the winter time,” Shelton said.

Everyone knows their taxes are typically the same year in and year out but Shelton said during the last 50 years helping people file their taxes, many things have remained the same but also changes have taken place over the decades.

“It’s getting a little more complicated. The computers made things much quicker. The basics are very similar,” Shelton said.

While Shelton has worked at H&R Block for 50 years, he retired from his work at Maytag almost two decades ago in 2001 after working there for 35 years. Even though he retired, Shelton decided to still keep his job doing taxes at H&R Block.

“(It’s) my winter hobby gone wild,” Shelton said through laughter.

Make no mistake, even though Shelton has already retired from one job and worked at H&R Block for 50 years, he doesn’t have plans to leave just yet. As long as everything holds out he will still be helping people with their taxes, for a while longer.

“I’ll still work here. Right now the mind says another four (to) five years and we will see if the body cooperates,” Shelton said.

Once Shelton does decide to ride off into the sunset he has some plans on what he might like to do with that extra time. Between seeing his children or taking part in other activities his time will fill up but he imagines he will miss some things from his career.

“I have enjoyed the friendships. At this point in time I have got more friends than I have got clients,” Shelton said.

Newton will always be home for Shelton and he has no plans of leaving anytime soon, even after he finally decides to retire for good. The plans are to stay here, even if it does get a little cold in the winter time.

“When we first moved here we thought it was a temporary thing. Never broke the swing,” Shelton said. “We have enjoyed Newton over the years.”

Contact Dustin Teays at 641-792-3121 ext. 6533 or dteays@newtondailynews.com