When Roger Quakenbush walked into the Weaver’s Men’s Store early Thursday, it was just like another day at work for him at 905 Mass.

Except that when he took the salesman job he was 23 years old, the name of the place was Carl’s Men’s Store and customers tended to wear suits more often.

Of course, the baby boom was just a newborn.

“I’d come back from World War II and had gone to KU a year and decided to go into the men’s clothing business as a profession,” Quakenbush said at work Thursday, the 60th anniversary of his June 1, 1946, start. “I remember maybe being a little apprehensive on that first day. I’d been in the service for five years at that time, and I guess I was little older than a student just starting out.”

Ron Callaway, left, Lawrence, gets some help from Weaver's Men's Store salesman Roger Quakenbush in picking out a suit coat. Quakenbush celebrated 60 years of working in the store at 905 Massachusettes Thursday.

Now, at age 83, Quakenbush isn’t slowing down. He still works from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, greeting friends with his familiar smile, executing transactions via pneumatic tubes and sizing customers with the familiar 60-inch measuring tape that has become as much a part of his wardrobe as the slacks, ties and sweaters he sells.

“I’ve gone through dozens of these,” he said Thursday, as he prepared to assist a customer. “Sometimes I wear them home to bed.”

Quakenbush entered semi-retirement about a dozen years ago, switching to part-time status after a full-time career spent in sales, management and merchandising. He even owned the place for a while, buying Carl’s in the late 1950s before selling it to Weaver’s in the 1960s.

Up until then, Weaver’s hadn’t had a men’s department.

In this newspaper photo reproduction from a Weaver's scrapbook, Roger Quakenbush shows a suit to a customer in 1962.

“He’s amazing,” said Earl Reineman, Weaver’s vice president.

Through it all, Quakenbush has watched as men’s fashions evolved from conservative suits and ties to more casual sportswear, including knit golf shirts, Tommy Bahama button-downs and, of course, slightly less conservative suits and ties.

“Men’s fashions really haven’t changed all that much,” he said. “A sportshirt’s still a sportshirt. It may have a little different pattern, a little different collar, a little different cut, but it’s still a sportshirt.”

Quakenbush laughs when he considers the subtle style changes that have surfaced during his six decades on the job, and mulls the future as he begins his seventh today.

“I’ve seen ’em all,” he said, laughing. “Some of them two or three times.”