Edward Hinkley was born, raised, and educated in Medfield, and then Ed worked for the DPW, for almost fifty years when he retired last week from his positions as foreman in the Water Department and tree warden. The DPW held a retirement party for Ed a week ago, at which he collected numerous citations, and a neat looking lamp made out of a water valve with a hard hat for a shade.
I met Ed when as a new selectman he lead the then Board of Selectmen to perambulate the bounds of the town, which turned out to involve visiting the granite markers that delineate the actual town boundaries. As we left the Town House, Ed first taught me the short cut from the town hall parking lot out to Rte 109, and then amazed me when he lead us to a myriad of granite markers, most standing the the middle of woods. My immediate reaction at the time was that those markers were so remotely sited that Ed was probably the only person who knew where all those markers were actually located. At Ed’s retirement party, Selectman DeSorgher mentioned that while walking the Medfield State Hospital grounds with Ed, Ed had told someone to find the water valve they were seeking behind some brush, and sure enough that is where it was.
Ed has a detailed and encyclopedic knowledge of the infrastructure details of the Town of Medfield, and the town will be poorer for his departure.
Town of Medfield owes Ed Hinkley a huge thank you for fifty years of service. We wish him well on his visit to Yellowstone.
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