Meet payroll practitioner David Kuhn, who has been with RTD 50 years today: ‘I'm obsessed with doing a good job’
If you’ve worked at RTD for a while, chances are David Kuhn’s life has intersected with yours – even if you didn’t know it. The payroll practitioner has quietly and carefully ensured that employees are paid properly since his career at the agency began 50 years ago today.
Kuhn has handled light rail operator pay since day one. The 77-year-old takes a dedicated midday exercise break every day to visit an RTD fitness center or jog along the South Platte River Trail next to District Shops, where he is based. He takes Thursdays off during the winter to ski without the lift lines. Kuhn didn’t plan on being with the agency for five decades, he said, “but sometimes life unfolds. And I knew that if I made it 50 years, it was something I could hold in my heart the rest of my life.”
The self-described “basic Midwest guy at heart” was born and raised in Red Wing, Minnesota, about an hour southeast of the Twin Cities. Kuhn felt called to move to Denver in 1973 after earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Iowa State University. He realized that while he loved his field of study, he really loved working with numbers. When Kuhn arrived at RTD in 1976, he liked his new employer – and he said he had a gut feeling that he might have a long tenure with the agency.
“I like doing payroll. I like helping people,” Kuhn said. “I'm obsessed with doing a good job. I'm obsessed with seeing people get paid right. And I’m 100% committed every day to come in here and do the best job I can.”
When Kuhn started at the now-shuttered Alameda Division, he joked, “our computer was a pencil and eraser.” His introduction to computers was at RTD. Tools aside, he noted: “Payroll is payroll. It's still a matter of using what you have.”
Kuhn appreciates when payday arrives and he doesn’t get many phone calls. He said he gets a lot of compliments. And with his intention set on retiring in December, the word has gotten out that he will be leaving. “I've gotten some really nice letters,” he said. “I don't do this to get the letters, but it's nice.”
Kuhn said this final year of paid work feels like his senior year of high school, with appreciation for all the colleagues he has come to know and the last time he is doing any number of things. He said he’s enjoying every moment.
After RTD, Kuhn plans to volunteer more, both at Mile Hi Church in Lakewood, where he has ushered for more than 40 years, and with the Lakewood Elks. He will continue to ski. He will spend more time with his wife of 14 years. And he will keep rooting for his beloved Vikings, whom he hopes might one day win the Super Bowl.
How did he reach 50 years with RTD? Kuhn made a list:
No 1: coffee. “I don't drink coffee on workdays at home. I wait until I get here. I believe in getting here early.”
No. 2: daily exercise. “I work out for an hour and I feel like I've accomplished something, and then I'm ready to sit back at my desk. Being fit is like breathing to me.”
No. 3: an attitude of gratitude. “I've grown a lot as I've gotten older. I don't care how old you are, you still try to learn. Having a positive attitude is really critical.”
No. 4: his colleagues. “Ninety-nine percent of the people I've worked with at RTD are absolutely fantastic. I love the people here. They're just so great to work with.”
No. 5: his faith. He quotes a psalm from the Bible: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”
Kuhn calls his career with RTD “an incredible gift.” “In the big picture of life,” he said, “it is a fantastic place to work.”