If you made it to retirement age sometime in the past four decades, there’s a good chance you know who Jim Capp is.

“He is sort of synonymous with Social Security in Great Falls,” said Peggy Murphy, the district manager at the Great Falls Social Security Administration. “It’s a whole bunch of history and knowledge that’s going out the door with him.”

Capp plans to retire on Jan. 3 after serving four generations of Social Security clients as the SSA assistant manager. On that day, the office also plans an open house where the public can learn more about SSA and say goodbye to Capp.

When a 24-year-old Capp walked into the SSA office in 1979 for an interview, he had no idea he would spend the next 38 years watching the changes that made his workplace into what it is today.

First of all, the building’s location has moved three times since Capp started, the first of which was in downtown Great Falls.

“We had a lot of ‘board meetings’ at the City Bar after work,” he said, laughing. “I would look through my checkbook and it’d be City Bar, City Bar, Albertson’s, City Bar. They were just good times, and good people.”

He also said with a chuckle that as the youngest person in the office, “I had a lot of mothers taking care of me, and I needed taking care of back then.”

Capp, a Butte boy born and bred, graduated from college with a degree in business administration and marketing, and his ideal job was to be in advertising.

“The only thing I knew about Social Security was that I had a Social Security card with a number on it,” he said.

After a couple of false starts, Capp went back and took a civil service test. A couple months went by, and a person from SSA called him in for an interview.

“And the rest is history,” he said.

Capp remembers his interviewer pointing to a wall full of shelves lined with black manuals that he would have to follow and reference daily. Now, all of that information is kept online.

The digital age brought probably the biggest change to Capp’s job.

“When I came on board, the first day that I came into the office, there were two computer terminals, and…we didn’t even touch them,” he said.

All the applications for benefits were done on paper, and SSA employees only used the terminals to look up records. At best, the claims process took two weeks. At worst, it would be up to two months before a claimant would receive benefits.

“Now, when an individual comes in and files for retirement benefits, there’s a good chance that when they leave here, we’ll have processed their claim,” said Capp.

When Capp started, going to the Social Security office was an occasion. People would come to their appointments dressed to the nines.

Now, many services can be done from home in your pajamas.

“We don’t have as much public contact as we had, and that I miss a little bit,” said Capp. “I like getting out and spreading the good word of Social Security.”

Even as the digital age dawned, older patient files were still kept on microfiche because they couldn’t be accessed online.

“When we got a new set in, we had to destroy the old set,” Capp said. “We had to boil them in a crockpot until they were all mushy and could be thrown away.”

Murphy, whose hiring team in 1999 included Capp, recalls the office being pretty computer illiterate when she started.

“For me, it was like a step back into the stone age,” she said.

At that time, each claimant had a layered metal “tally board” that their claim was tracked on. Employees would make changes to the boards on Fridays and submit their reports on the claim’s status.

The computer transition was hard for some employees, and many older employees had a hard time coping.

“Some of them actually retired out because it was frustrating,” Capp said. “I remember getting the internet installed and I was like, ‘Why are we getting the internet?’ Now, if our system goes down here, we’re basically crippled.”

Whether it’s digitally or on paper, Capp believes in what the Social Security Administration does for people.

"A lot of people think that they’re not going to get all of the money that they contributed to the system," he said. "Normally in about 5-7 years, you’ve made back what you paid into the system."

Both of Capp's siblings died at 51, leaving behind children who were seniors in high school. They were only eligible for about a year's worth of benefits.

In contrast, his parents lived into their 90s and collected benefits from the time they were 62.

"It’s a pooling system where people make their contribution and it pays for all of us,” Capp said.

Helping people in need of those benefits has been the most rewarding part of Capp's job.

He recalled one woman who had just lost her husband after a lengthy and expensive battle with cancer. She cried when Capp read her the amount she would receive.

“When we deal with people here, we deal with situations where there’s been a change in their life,” said Capp. “We get a lot of bad press, but we’re a pretty good safety net when someone has had a disability or a death in their family.”

In another case, Capp got to see the aftermath of a death up close. He traveled out of town to handle a claim, and when he got there, the funeral was in progress. He had to ask claims questions in a room full of mourners as they paid their respects to the recently departed.

“I’ll just never forget it because they didn’t even have the coffin closed, and there was this fella,” he said. “It was an interesting meeting.”

Thankfully, SSA now has a virtual reception program where out of town claimants can visit with a representative no matter where they are.

Capp isn’t entirely sure what he’ll do when he retires. Some travel might be on the menu, but he’s mostly looking forward to the extra time to volunteer for causes that are important to him.

Both of Capp’s parents had to go into nursing homes before passing away, and as the only surviving child, he had to navigate a complicated system to make sure their care was paid for.

“That’s something that I’d like to do is to be an advocate and to be a resource for those individuals to find a way to pay for their loved ones’ care when they’re in one of those facilities,” he said.

Capp will turn 62 on Dec. 23, which means he will be eligible for Social Security benefits.

“When I first started and I was 24 years old, 62 seemed ancient to me,” he said. “But I will know that the agency, and particularly the employees in this office, will take very good care of me, as we try to do with everyone that we serve.”

IF YOU GO

What: Social Security Administration Open House

When: 2-5 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 3

Where: Social Security Administration, 2008 23rd St. S.

Reach Tribune Staff Writer Traci Rosenbaum at 791-1490. Follow her on Twitter @GFTrib_TRosenba.