POULSBO — Poulsbo booster Bill Austin is at Martha & Mary, recovering from surgery to repair a broken hip and undergoing physical therapy.

The bushy-haired octogenarian said he tripped and fell onto his right hip after he and other volunteers finished putting up the Christmas lights across Front Street in downtown Poulsbo.

His active lifestyle — a day after one of his many retirement announcements, he was seen at Home Depot pushing a cart full of 2 by 6’s for a home improvement project — likely contributed to how well he’s healing.

Austin said on Nov. 27 that his doctors told him he is in great health, and that they expect him to be discharged from Martha & Mary “in a week and a half.” He’s 82, but asked Nov. 27 how he feels — age 52 or 42 or younger? — he said, “I feel 92 today.”

Austin owns Austin Sign Company (he served as a sign-maker in the British Army) and is president of the Bight of Poulsbo Foundation. He was born in England but has lived in Poulsbo since 1971.

He has restored or redeveloped several properties in Poulsbo. For the public’s benefit, he used his construction know-how, his fundraising ability and his power of persuasion to build Kvelstad Pavilion (now Austin-Kvelstad Pavilion), the Oyster Plant Park nautilus, and waterfalls on both ends of Front Street; remodel the Poulsbo Senior Center and Poulsbo Marine Science Center; restore the Nelson Farmhouse and the Martinson Log Cabin; and create and donate several murals, signs and sculptures, among them the “Norseman” at Lindvig Way and Viking Avenue, and the octopus sculpture outside the Marine Science Center (both by Mark Gale).

This year, he created the rock and steel gateway to Poulsbo Municipal Cemetery; and helped restore the waterfront park pavilion.

Austin received the Poulsbo Chamber of Commerce’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013. At the presentation, Liberty Bay Auto general manager Doug Haughton said, “Poulsbo looks like it does because of Bill Austin. He has almost single-handedly created, maintained and re-created the look and feel of his adopted home. Armed with paintbrush and hammer, Bill has spent 40 years ensuring Poulsbo remains a one-of-a-kind village of Norwegian heritage, attracting locals and visitors to its shops, restaurants and waterfront.”