ANAHEIM : 48 Years, 19 Jobs Later, He Retires

It was 1944 when 17-year-old Gil Luna took a part-time job with the city’s Parks and Recreation Department as a gardener and locker room attendant.

Forty-eight years later, Luna has finally resigned, ending his part-time job status, after working his way through 19 positions, mostly at city pools, and becoming aquatics director and recreation coordinator. Luna, who also spent 30 years as a physical education teacher and athletic director in Anaheim junior high schools, was honored last month by the department and the City Council as the longest serving employee in city history.

“What’s funny is that I only remember 17 of the jobs,” Luna said during a recent interview at the Garden Grove home he shares with his wife of 40 years, Wanda. “But I have been a lot of things--playground attendant, (head of) a men’s basketball league . . . a swimming pool manager.”

Luna, 65, said his family came to Anaheim when he was a small child. His father, who died when Luna was 4, managed a Westminster farm. Luna attended Anaheim High School and played on its basketball team, which eventually led to his job with the park system.

“They had a program where they gave jobs to kids from low-income families,” Luna said. “Well, the (high school’s) coaches knew me and they helped me get the job.”

Luna spent a year at Fullerton College and another at Santa Ana College, which is now Rancho Santiago College, playing basketball. It earned him a basketball scholarship to Fresno State College. But every summer, Luna would return to work for Anaheim parks department.

“Working for the parks or working as a PE teacher, almost every day you have some success,” he said. “Say there is some kid who can’t catch a ball. Well, you work with him and within a week or two he starts catching the ball and he feels good about himself and you feel good for him.”

Chris Jarvi, the city’s current parks director, said Luna was known for being “very steady.”

“He’s a guy who doesn’t like a lot of attention,” Jarvi said. “He’s a professional who just gets the job done. . . . We figure that because of all of his years working with the pools he is responsible, directly or indirectly, for 100,000 children learning how to swim.”

Luna, who plans to spend time with his four children and seven grandchildren, said that until the city staff told him, he hadn’t really realized he had worked for the city so long.

“You get caught up in the work and you don’t even think about all of the years you have put in,” Luna said. “If you enjoy your work and look forward to going every day, you’ll never even notice it has been 48 years.”