For 13 years, Ben Bednar made sure kids crossed the street safely in the morning and afternoon as they went to Southgate Elementary School. On Friday, Bednar, 82, will retire from his job as the Southgate crossing guard.

“It’s just time,” Bednar said. “I just feel I’ve been doing it long enough.”

Bednar decided to join the city’s crossing guard contingent after spending several years in retirement. He’d made a career in the printing business, working for the Daily Herald in the ‘60s as a linotype operater before working at Austin Printing for 25 years.

While he worked part-time for Smyth Companies, Inc. in town, he became bored. Bednar, according to his daughter Mary Hagan, tends to be pretty involved in the community. He’s played in the Austin Symphony as well as various dance bands for years.

“He didn’t want to sit at home, he wanted to get out and do something,” Hagan said.

Bednar particularly enjoyed being a crossing guard at Southgate because he got to see some of his grandchildren every day. Of Bednar’s nine grandchildren here in Austin, four of them attended Southgate.

“I always had a grandchild out there for the past several years,” Bednar said. “I just hung on to it, to see them everyday.”

Now that the last grandchild to attend Southgate moved over to Ellis this year, Bednar feels it’s time to bow out as a guard. One of the current crossing guards is going to take over his location next week, with Bednar showing up on Monday to let the new person know about the location.

“It’s not that complicated,” Bednar said. “You just have to watch for cars, seeing that the kids don’t come out when the cars are coming, that’s all there is to it.”

Bednar, whose 13th anniversary as crossing guard happened Wednesday, will be missed, as he took the time to get to know many kids and families that went to Southgate. Of course, his own grandchildren will miss his crossing guard days.

“I know the kids always thought that that was pretty neat that Grandpa was the crossing guard,” Hagan said.