Murray Hergott is Humboldt's Citizen of the Year for 2013 and just by his reaction alone to the news over the phone, it's hard to think of anyone more deserving.
You could call him speechless.
Blown away.
Tongue-tied.
Incredibly grateful.
And, of course, sweetly humble.
"I-I just really can't believe this. You're kidding? You're KIDDING right?"
"No Murray, you really won! Congratulations!" I assure him.
"Oh, this is just wonderful! Goodness I-I'm just so grateful. I-Igeez, I don't even know what to say. Thank you! Thank you!" Murray fumbles for his words amidst his excitement, before saying his family is coming over that night for a belated Christmas dinner; he'll get to reveal his boast-worthy news then.
The Citizen of the Year Award is given out annually to someone who has made a major impact on the community of Humboldt. It's handed out, along with other awards, including the Junior Citizen Award, at the Chamber of Commerce's Mark of Excellence Awards that are being held March 14 at the Humboldt Uniplex.
"I'm just speechless. I just - well, I don't know if I've even done that much for Humboldt!"
"Well, there's definitely a lot of people in town who think you have," I reply.
"Yeah, I guess so!" he replies enthusiastically.
Don't let Murray's endearing humility fool you because, as the people who nominated him know, he has more than enough charitable endeavors to his name to make him a shoo-in for the coveted award, perhaps even long overdue.
Murray's ties to the community date back quite awhile; it's where he's always called home, born and raised here, married to his high school sweetheart Joan and raised two sons, Chris and Curtis, and a daughter, Tamara.
Murray was fresh out of high school when he took his first job at a lumberyard in town but that was short-lived, as his role with the family business Hergott Farm Equipment, which he's still involved in, began soon after.
Established in 1944 by Murray's two uncles, Al and Bill, it was 1967 when a young Murray bought some of Bill's shares, after Al had retired from the company; he was sales manager for over 40 years, right up until a year ago, where now he has sort of taken a step back from the company.
Sort of.
But he's still the project manager for the new 11,000 square-foot service shop being built next door to their location, and the company is still family-run, as Murray's two sons are now partners in the business as well.
With such a strong involvement in the Hergott's family business, it's hard to imagine how Murray ever had time for the whopping amount of community work he has immersed himself in.
But, somehow, he found that time.
He was an avid member of Humboldt's Junior Citizens branch (JCs) throughout the 1970s, even serving as president, regional director and later was awarded the Senatorship in 1979, the highest honour bestowed on a member.
For his role with the JCs, he is entirely indebted to snowmobiles.
Yes, snowmobiles.
Back years ago, the Saskatchewan Snowmobile Racing Association (SSRA), in partnership with the JCs, used to host snowmobile races in Humboldt. At the time, Hergott Farm Equipment had a contract with Ski-Doo, the leading manufacturer of snowmobiles, to sell some of their products.
One thing led to another and before they knew it, Murray and a bunch of other locals were racing snowmobiles in their spare time, and Murray became involved building tracks for the races put on by the SSRA and JCs.
"That's how I really came to learn about the JCs," he explains.
"Do you ever miss racing?"
"Oh yeah, sure. It was a lot of fun," he says, looking off. "I had a really good snowmobile too. It was my favourite, a Ski-Doo 3400 Blizzard, probably the 1972 edition," he muses nostalgically.
He gets back to the JCs.
"The club had been kind of stagnant before that but we fixed it up," Murray says, giving a nod to his friend Geoff Lockhart, who served as vice-president.
"We really turned that club around; increased membershipin fact, when I was involved with the JCs, we had a ton of members. It was a lot of fun, like a big family," he adds, something that the now-called JCI organization still holds true to its name.
Actually, it was during Murray's tenure with the JCs that Humboldt's demolition derby, a highly anticipated summer event, was started, an idea Lockhart sprang forward after seeing other communities do it.
During the last bit of his time with the JCs, Murray decided to get even more involved with his home community: he was elected to town council.
"For the first little while, I was still with the JCs so I kind of acted like a liaison between them and council," he says.
But by 1981, after serving nearly four years with council, Murray had to step down.
"I had been having trouble with my peripheral vision and just understanding things. Like at council, someone would be speaking and it'd take me a long time to write down notes or comprehend what they were talking about. It just didn't make sense to me," he says.
It was during a relaxing night at a hotel pool that something even more alarming happened to him.
"After swimming laps around the pool, I suddenly had this tingling in my hand. I couldn't shake it off, it just wouldn't go away."
By the next day, the tingling had spread up both his arms; he went to see his doctor and after a few referrals and some examinations, it was confirmed: Murray had multiple sclerosis, commonly referred to as MS.
"That's what made me step down from council," he says. "My symptoms were pretty bad at the time and I figured they'd just gradually get worse."
MS is an inflammatory disease in which nerve cells in the body become damaged; the exact cause of the condition is still not clearly understood and although there is no cure at the moment, there are several varying treatments to alleviate the grueling symptoms that people can go through, since those affected with the disease experience symptoms ranging from mild and slow-growing to more acute and rapid.
In the 1980s, Murray says his symptoms were pretty bad.
"I couldn't drive to Saskatoon anymore because it just became too confusing; I don't really know how to explain it but the roads and things just threw me off. My feet were constantly cold, although when my wife would touch them, they felt warm to her. I still had tingling and trouble seeing things and just remembering or processing things became much slower for me," he explains.
And then, somehow, his symptoms didn't get worse. In fact, they seemed to get better and by the late '80s, Murray was able to do things again; now, 32 years after first being diagnosed, Murray says his MS symptoms have stabilized.
"I mean, I still get some minor tingling here or there, and I have trouble sometimes recalling someone's name right off the bat, but other than that, no, I haven't really had any big issues," he says with a smile.
Aside from the JCs, Murray also sat on the Separate School Board in the 1980s and was an active member of the Saskatchewan Implement Dealers Association as well; when his boys were growing up, he coached their pee-wee baseball teams, all while managing his MS symptoms and working tirelessly at Hergott Farm Equipment.
Good thing his MS has lightened up, because he's got things to do.
What's something Murray really loves?
"Dirt," he laughs out loud.
"I like dirt," he says bluntly with a wide grin. "I really like working with my hands. Honestly, that's my passion. I could do that all day."
So a benevolent mixture of his passion mixed with compassion has helped Murray in turn help the city he loves.
He built new shelves for the local Good Neighbour Store and re-built a berm for the local Gun Club south of town; he and his business have supplied equipment to countless projects around the area over the years, sometimes free of charge and even equipment that he personally owns.
"It's no skin off my back," he says matter of factly.
And then there's the philanthropic side of him that doesn't involve carpentry or machinery.
He donates to the SPCA and has diligently supported the Humboldt District Hospital Foundation, just to name a few things but lately Murray is starting to look at life after retirement.
"What would you like to do, something with your hands?" I ask.
"Oh, of course. Honestly, I'd like to help out my wife in the garden. She's a very talented gardener, she's made our yard beautiful," he says, proudly taking out his phone to show me photos of Joan's work. "That's her passion and mine is woodworking, so I don't mind helping build decorative birdhouses and things," he says with a laugh. He also intends to spend time on his farm out of town, where he harvests canola and wheat and, naturally, gets to work with dirt.
In fact, on a little list of accomplishments and tidbits about himself he had jotted down for me, he lists two things under "Likes":
-snowmobile racing
-working with dirt
"I didn't know if you'd need this," he says sheepishly, as he pulls the little piece of paper out from the pocket of his Hergott Farm Equipment windbreaker. "I just figured - I don't know, I thought I'd write some stuff down but it's hard trying to remember things I've done," he says modestly.
Such humility from a man who's part of the biggest independent retailer of farm equipment in all of Saskatchewan, and who has done so much for his community in the 65 years he has been a part of it.
It's refreshing.
It's just Murray's way.
