Assistant City Manager Don Monty will make his last walk through the Civic Center doors today after 35 years of service to the city.

Monty has held six different city positions since his start with the city government. He began as in intern in the spring of 1970. At the time, he was a student at SIUC in pursuit of a Ph.D. in geography.

Shortly after starting his internship in the mayor's office and after three years of graduate-level classes, Monty knew what he wanted to do.

"At some point, I decided that working for the public was more attractive than a Ph.D.," he said.

Typically, someone who receives a doctoral degree in geography leads more of an academic career, such as a professor, Monty said.

"I decided that was not the career path I wanted to follow," Monty said. "Once I got hands on, working with the government, I decided there was something different I wanted to do."

Since then, serving the public has always come first to Monty.

"For somebody to take an administrative position in a local government like this, you have to be willing to accept the fact that it's not an eight to five job," he said.

Monty remembers staying at the office as late as 1 or 2 a.m., in the days before computers, just to finish paper work.

"A 40-hour week would've been a weird situation," he said. " A typical week would have started with 50 hours and gone up."

City Manager Jeff Doherty, who started his career working for Monty, said he has always been a very professional, dedicated and hard-working employee.

"I look at him as an equal and have sought out his advice and have relied on him tremendously," Doherty said.

He said he considers Monty to be more than a co-worker.

"You can't help but work with somebody over the years and develop a friendship with them as well," Doherty said.

Mayor Brad Cole, who has worked with Monty for seven and a half years, said he is a great asset and will miss seeing him around the office.

"He's done a little bit of everything, and everything he's done has been done with the highest level of professionalism," Cole said.

Monty said he has mixed emotions about retiring, though he looks forward to spending more time with his wife, who retired in July.

"In the 35 years I've worked for the city, I've put a lot of time in here, and in doing that, there are personal things I would have like to have done that didn't get done," Monty said. "But at some point, you've got to say, 'Now it's time for me.'"

That is exactly what he plans on doing now.

"Instead of skimming my national geographic from month to month, now I can actually read it from cover to cover," Monty said.