HADLEY — A Hadley native who has handled emergency dispatching duties for the town since 1976, previously earning acclaim from a statewide organization, was honored for his half century of service this week.

Henry Baj was given a proclamation and certificate of thanks by the Select Board at Wednesday’s meeting, where fellow dispatchers, police officers and firefighters were all in attendance at the Senior Center to offer appreciation. He was also presented a handmade American flag signed by all staff and containing the emblems of the departments.

Baj said his role, which has been mostly part time over the past 50 years, is to serve residents and neighbors. “We’re trying to make everything for the public, because that’s why we’re here,” Baj said.

Baj recalled that upon his graduation from Hopkins Academy, the fire chief at the time offered him the opportunity to do dispatching on a 4 p.m. to midnight shift, which he took up the next Saturday. Baj said he was molded by the guidance of two police officers, Michael Majewski Jr., the first full-time officer who would rise to rank of lieutenant, and Dennis Hukowicz, who would become the police chief and whose name is on the current public safety complex.

Baj also praised Police Chief Michael Mason for professionalizing the department and bringing on good people, not just police officers, recognized retired Fire Chief Michael Spanknebel for his leadership of the fire department and support for in-house ambulance service, and also thanked Meghan Cahill, the dispatch supervisor.

Baj’s first dispatch call came on July 10, 1976, where he wrote down information from a woman reporting a 7:45 p.m. hit-and-run accident in the Mountain Farms Mall parking lot. At the time, the communications room was in an old horse barn, much different from the current public safety complex with modern technology.

Over the years, Baj worked almost all Saturday day shifts and filled in for others, even as he was a full-time maintenance technician at the physical plant at the University of Massachusetts.

Cahill said she has witnessed Baj master every evolution in communications, with multiple computer screens on, and even becoming certified in emergency medical dispatch for the past 15 months. That allows Baj and other dispatchers to offer medical instructions to people, which can be lifesaving before an ambulance arrives.

“Anyone who knows Henry knows dispatching isn’t just his job, it’s part of who he is,” Cahill said, joking that the only times Baj isn’t available to work is when he’s at Fenway Park attending a Boston Red Sox game or at Gillette Stadium watching the New England Patriots play.

She said that last Friday, the day that he hit 50 years on the job, he assured her as he was leaving that he would be back for additional shifts.

Baj’s statewide recognition came in 2023, when he was named the telecommunicator of the year by the Massachusetts Communciations Supervisors Association. That was four years after Baj briefly retired from dispatching, a technical requirement for the retirement system after leaving his full-time position at UMass.

Mason said there are usually only two certainties in life, those being death and taxes, but in Hadley there are three: “death, taxes and Henry’s voice on the radio on Saturday morning.”