After a career in the National Guard, the South Dakota Department of Transportation and 12 years on the city commission, I became the Chief Service Officer (CSO) of my town of Pierre, the capitol of South Dakota in 2011, under the Cities of Service program – supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies.
The CSO takes on leadership of projects in the community, organizes volunteers and oversees the purchase of materials and supplies needed.
Shortly after I was hired, Pierre suffered a major flood of the Missouri River that runs through the city. Fortunately, we didn’t lose any lives. But we lost homes, businesses and the city took an awful hit.
The flooding continued through that summer – an unprecedented high water event due to heavy winter snowfall in the mountains of Montana and North Dakota, plus heavy spring rains. All five of the Army Corps of Engineers dams on the river were full and running over and couldn’t control the flow.
We got a $5000 grant and I organized 125 volunteers to take up dead trees and clean up the parks. With the money we had left, we planted what trees we could purchase by spring of 2012. We received another $25,000 grant to complete the project.
My encore is applying the skills of my past career, especially the leadership and organizational skills from my command positions in the National Guard. I’ve had people tell me, “If I have to work as hard as you do when I retire, I’m going to keep on working.” My wife of 51 years, Colleen, who was an elementary teacher for 40+ years, and I feel our community has been good to us. We’ve taken leadership in community organizations such as the food bank, delivering meals on wheels and other projects. Colleen and I are the only couple that has both been president of our Kiwanis Club, the first man-and-wife team. We see needs and we try to use our experience and our skills to fill those needs.
I’ve seen individuals who worked for 40 years, then retired, didn’t have outside interests, didn’t belong to any organization, sat at home and were dead in a year. I started heavy volunteer activity about age 60 and I’m 76 now. At one time, I had a list of eight different organizations and activities with which I was involved. I’ve got that list down to about five at the present time. I am currently chairman of a Parents Matter coalition working to educate parents regarding underage drinking.
It is a joy to give back. Our “pay” is helping others in difficulty who cannot help themselves.