Glen Sitter calls the museum his “happy place”
By Joan Janzen
Not many people can claim they were born in a log cabin, but Kindersley resident Glen Sitter came into this world in 1935 in a log cabin located between Turtle Lake and Great Sand Lake. However, the next year, his family moved to Kindersley, and Glen has lived there ever since.
Glen had five sisters and one brother and was the second oldest in the family. He took all his elementary and high school education in Kindersley, although he admits he didn't spend much time in class. Young Glen wasn't interested in academics but loved building models. His passion for building models began when he was 14 and continued throughout his lifetime.
"I was interested in math, but I wasn't interested in anything else you learned in the classroom," he said. The teacher would send him to shop class whenever he wasn't paying attention. "I spent most of my school life in shop. That's where I learned the things that helped me all through my life." Despite it all, Glen said he absorbed enough information to receive a graduation diploma in 1953.
During his high school years, he had been working part-time for a local company. "When I got out of school, I bought the company and formed Sitter's Transport Ltd. in 1953," he reported. At that time, the company consisted of a team of horses and a wagon. Nevertheless, it was an impressive achievement for a high school graduate.
"I got rid of the horses and wagon and bought a truck, and that's how it started," he said. A few years later, he married Lorraine Materi from Pinkham in 1957. They had five girls and one boy and now have nine grandkids and 13 great-grandchildren. "We have a pile of them," he chuckled.
By the mid-70s, Glen also had a pile of employees, 45 to be exact. He also had branches in Kindersley, Rosetown, Saskatoon and Calgary. The majority of his employees came from a Mennonite community north of Saskatoon. At that time, it was easy to find drivers since a chauffeur's licence allowed a person to drive big trucks.
"Back in those days, all my kids worked for Sitter's Transport, doing something. Because in those days, you were allowed to pay your kids $1500 in wages," Glen said. "None of them drove truck, but they worked in some capacity, sweeping floors, cleaning trucks or doing office work."
Glen mentioned one of his drivers in Rosetown - Ed Schultz, whose son Dave was none other than Dave the Hammer Schultz, the toughest and most feared player in the NHL. "Anyone old enough will remember Dave the Hammer Schultz," Glen said.
Sitter's Transport mail trucks were on the road seven days a week delivering mail under some pretty harsh weather conditions. "In all the millions of miles we drove, we did have some accidents, but I never had a driver or employee spend one day in hospital because of an accident," Glen boasted.
Glen sold the business in 1980 after operating for 27 years. Most of his employees remained there the entire time. Today, Harvey Penner is the only former employee still surviving in Kindersley.
After selling his business, Glen spent ten years working for Grant Devine as Chairman of the Highway Traffic Board. "My claim to fame was a month-long hearing when all the boards in Canada were there, and hundreds and hundreds of lawyers and people came and voiced their opinion. The hearing allowed UPS into Canada," he said. "That's my claim to fame; it's also my claim to shame because UPS never fulfilled all the things they promised."
Not only was Glen occupied in the business sector throughout the years, but he also contributed and volunteered in the community. He was the first life member of the Kindersley Kinsmen Club and was a member of the Chamber of Commerce board for at least twenty years.
Glen spent ten years on Town Council. "I chaired the committee that got the first indoor swimming pool for the town," he noted. "That was for about a half a million dollars. Rosetown was building a pool at the same time."
During that ten-year period, the town was expanding: the mall was built, and Rosedale was started. "The town's population at that time was very close to what it is today," he recalled.
The next phase of Glen's life was spent restoring and building custom cars for a couple of decades. During that time, he completely restored forty old vehicles. "I had as many as twenty-two cars. I sold most of them so I could restore another one," he reasoned.
This also meant he spent a great deal of time travelling to car shows every weekend throughout the summer months. He formed many lifelong friendships while attending car shows.
Fast forward to 2024, when Glen is seated in an office chair at the Kindersley & District Museum. "Ten years ago, I decided to do a little volunteer work at the museum; it's turned into a labour of love, and I'm still here," he said. "I can never ever sit at home, so after I quit working on cars, the museum was a God send." He described the museum as his "happy place," and he doesn't know what he would have done without it.
Everyone at the museum may not know what they would have done without Glen, who has made a significant contribution, including an extensive railroad model located on the upper floor of the building. "It's probably worth close to $40,000 if you had to purchase it all, so it was a pretty good deal for the museum," he said. "But it was a good deal for me, too, because I just loved it."
He kept adding more sections over a period of six years, using donated parts and track. "I expanded it four different times as I obtained more equipment and received donations. The museum didn't have to pay for anything," he explained. Glen was well suited to taking on this project since he always had a train set in his basement, which he would be working on.
Glen has always called Kindersley his home and never thought about living anywhere else. "Kindersley has been very good to me and my family. The people in Kindersley have supported any businesses I've been involved in, and I've always had support from the town," he concluded.