Great People

While at college, Sy Sharp had a realization. It wasn’t for him. “I couldn’t picture myself in a suit or working in an office,” he said. “In high school, I always loved working with my hands in shop class.”

After leaving college, he took a job as an orderly at a nursing home, worked at a packing house, then decided to follow in the footsteps of his father, Silas Sharp, who retired as Metro Transit’s longest-serving employee with 52 years of service. “I grew up around my dad and uncles working on cars at home, so it was always something I thought about,” he said.

In 1979, Sharp started as a sweeper at Nicollet Garage. In 1980, he became a technician, a job he held until his retirement in 2022.

His career helped him put four children through college and provided years of smiles and laughs with co-workers. “This is the best labor job I’ve ever had,” he said. “But it’s time for me to go.”

In retirement, Sharp planned to see the country driving long haul trips, to visit Europe, and to get back to playing music.

In 1987, Debra Downing was expecting her second child and looking for another source of income to help put gifts under the tree. So when she spotted a newspaper ad inviting police officers to join Metro Transit’s fledgling police department in part-time roles, she applied. Downing submitted her application the night they were due and joined the first group of 20 part-time officers hired, beginning what would become a 34-year career in transit.

Downing’s career in law enforcement began in college, when she interned at the Minneapolis Police Department. She later joined the New Hope Police Department, where she spent 8 years as a patrol officer. When she joined the Metro Transit Police Department, she went from policing a six-square-mile area to traveling on buses across the region and working with officers from many different departments. “The beauty of that was that all of a sudden we’d created this network of police officers who could share information and get a lot of crime solved,” she said. Still, there were growing pains – when she was hired, Metro Transit police officers had squad cars but no uniforms and called in their locations using pay phones. On one memorable occasion, she found herself chasing a suspect in leggings, a Minnie Mouse T-shirt and a green down jacket. “At that time, we just hopped on the bus and hoped for the best,” she said.

Looking for a new chapter, Downing became a transit supervisor in 2006. The job had some similarities – transit supervisors often respond to collisions, operator assaults nd other incidents – with one key distinction. “As a supervisor, the biggest difference is that we look, but we don’t touch,” Downing said. Even so, some of her habits as a police officer remained, at least in the early days. “I didn’t hesitate to go on a bus and get someone off,” she said. “It was just second nature to me.” Downing’s time as a transit supervisor also meant diverting buses through major construction projects and support some of the region’s biggest events, like the 2008 Republican National Convention and the 2018 Super Bowl.

In retirement, Downing plans to spend more time with family, including several grandchildren, and at her lake home in northern Minnesota. “Next winter, when I’m looking out the window and seeing snow, that alone will make retiring worth it,” she said.

When Steve Wortman started at Metro Transit, he was looking for a job. He ended up finding a career.

"I wasn't planning on staying here, but after a few years, the vacation, pay, and benefits were adding up," Wortman said. "And when I compared it to other companies, the pay was always better here."

He ended up at transit because other companies said he was too young as he was under 25 years old. Forty-three years later, their loss was Metro Transit's gain.

He started at the Northside Garage, then moved to Heywood where he's been ever since. He's been a bus operator, instructor, backup coordinator, and coordinator -- where he ends his career. Throughout he's always driven a bus when needed.

"In all that time, I've seen a lot of changes from how the company operates to new clientele," he said. "And, I've helped support many big events like the State Fair, Super Bowl, World Series, Final Four, and an All Star Game."

In retirement, he plans to drive long haul buses and take vacations with his wife and grandchildren.

Dan Syverson was a truck driver in the early 1980s in North Dakota when a friend suggested applying at Metro Transit. He did, and there he stayed for 41 years, building a career that was both professionally rewarding and enough to put three children through college. “It’s worked well for me,” Syverson said shortly before retiring in March 2021. “Once you have a family and children, you have to have stability. It was good for us.”

A bus operator for the first 10 years, and then an instructor, Syverson saw Metro Transit grow up. “I have seen a lot of evolution in all of Metro Transit, from the red buses with no power steering to the buses nowadays that are like Cadillacs,’’ he said.

In 2003, Syverson switched to light rail where he learned to operate trains six months before the METRO Blue Line’s opening day in 2004, and then helped train other operators who moved over. “I was always interested in rail but never thought that opportunity would come and was happy to be part of it,’’ he said.

Late in his career, Syverson served as rail coordinator, ensuring all operator training needs were covered. Until the end, he continued to operate trains as needed.

In retirement, Syverson and his wife, Mary Jo, planned to spend more time biking, camping, and traveling, including cruising on European rivers. He also considered finding a part-time job driving a school bus because he likes children and wants to keep busy. “It’s hard to be idle after working so long,’’ he said.

In 1973, Bob Patkoff began his career in the bus industry as a baggage handler for an interstate bus company out of Dallas, Texas.

“Working in the bus business, you get to meet a lot of people,” Patkoff said. “I’ve driven the New York Yankees and met lots of folks, like the Zelles and Jesse Jackson.” He fondly remembers receiving a signed baseball from Reggie Jackson, a player with a reputation for not signing autographs.

After a brief break to study in college and serve in the Army, he returned to interstate busing. However, he was spending an average of 285 days away from home and his family. “It was too much time away,” he said. “So, I started to look for other jobs in other places, like Kansas City, Chicago, or Minneapolis-St. Paul.”

In 1987, he arrived in Minnesota, his birth state. Three years later, he began as a part-time operator for what was then known as the Metropolitan Transit Commission. Three years later, he became a relief dispatcher. In 2002, he earned a job as a full-time bus dispatcher, where he spent the bulk of his career. From 2016 to 2021, he worked in rail as a dispatcher.

For the last year of his career, he returned where he began: bus operations. “It’s my first and last job,” Patkoff said. “It’s been good to me.”

Patkoff retired in early 2022, after 32 years of service. In retirement, he and his wife plan to be “snowbirds,” splitting their time between Minnesota and Oklahoma, the state he was raised and has family and friends.