HARRISBURG, PA. — Capital Area Transit (CAT) bus operator Walter “Muss” Hillard, aged 76, has retired from the transit authority following fifty years of outstanding service, according to Tom Reynolds, CAT Interim General Manager.
Born in Steelton in 1942, Hillard wrestled for Steelton High’s first wrestling team and won 1st Place in the Steelton West Side Tennis Championship before serving in the U.S. Army from 1962-67. Hillard joined the military and served in Japan, Hawaii and Korea where he served as a Reconnaissance Scout guarding the Demarcation Line dividing North and South Korea.
Hillard, known as “Muss” from his weightlifting days, won first place in two Army Physical Training competitions competing with 300 other soldiers. He joined CAT in 1967 and retired January 2018, after fifty years of distinguished service to the riding public in Dauphin and Cumberland Counties and the City of Harrisburg.
“We are very proud of Walter Hillard and his years of service,” Tom Reynolds, Interim General Manager said today. “His commitment to decades of the highest standards of safe, courteous transit service to the public makes ‘Muss’ Hillard an exemplary symbol of excellence in public transit to all CAT employees and the public we serve.”
Hillard received a number of gifts and CAT dedicated its newest bus, Big Blue number 1701, as the ‘Walter “Muss” Hillard’ bus in recognition of his service. Hillard also received proclamations recognizing his contribution to the transit public from Dauphin County Commissioner Mike Pries and Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse.
Capital Area Transit was incorporated in 1973 when Cumberland County and Dauphin County Commissioners and the City of Harrisburg organized CAT to provide mass transit Fixed-Route and Paratransit shared-ride services, which today conveniently and safely transport about 2 million riders a year in the thousand square mile capital region.
Visitwww.cattransit.com, follow CAT on Facebook or Twitter at @CATTransit, or call CAT’s Public Information Office at 717-238-8304 for more information. “Where CAT Goes, Community Grows.”
