Hello Neighbor | Jim Pierson, Everyday Hero

Retired Tredyffrin Police Officer and active community volunteer, Jim Pierson gave me a tour of the Thomson Lodge in Paoli a few weeks ago.  I was honored to meet Jim and to learn about the Lodge, which has been in existence for over 150 years.  Jim's enthusiasm and concern for his friends, family and community means a lot to everyone who knows him.  A friend told me "He's the guy who will do anything you need, anything he can, to help."  From giving people rides when they can't drive themselves to taking care of the landscaping at the Lodge, Jim serves our community with joy, humor and kindness. 

I looked up to my Dad.  He was a nice guy.  He took good care of us and worked hard.  I grew up in Kennett Square.  Graduated High School in 1959.  Went in the Navy in 1960 and went to the Tredyffrin Police from 1964-1994. 

When I was a kid I wanted to be a policeman.  I decided to become a police officerwhen we were in the Scouts.  The Scoutmaster took us to this Pennsylvania State Police barracks for a tour.  And I saw everything they did.  We came out of there and he said “What do you think?” and I said “That’s what I want to do when I grow up”.  Once I got out of the service I got married.  And I used to wear glasses.  I went down to the State Police to join, to get an application, and the guy said “You’re married, we won’t even look at ya.  You wear glasses, we won’t take ya.”  You know, they could discriminate then. So I read an article in the newspaper, the Daily Local News, and I couldn’t pronounce "Tredyffrin” at the time.  They gave me directions to come over, I got the application and the rest is history. I was a police officer for Tredyffrin for 30 years.  You might be surprised to hearthat I didn’t drink coffee and eat doughnuts.  I drank coffee and ate popcorn or grapefruits.

When I retired for 6 months I didn’t do anything.  Then I worked for Vanguard Investments for about a year as a priority mail runner.  I got tired of that and I drove special ed kids for a while.  And now I just do a lot of volunteer work and help people.

I joined the Thompson Lodge to become a Mason.  I was interested in it.  It’s a great group of guys.  Once you become a Master Mason you can go anywhere in the world, to any lodge.  I enjoy being involved here.  It’s a diverse group of men - we have lawyers, we even have a famous baseball player.  Larry Christenson, he’s a member.  And then you have just regular working guys like myself.  Some of the things we do are a lot of charity work.  Like juvenile arthritis, different things.  I’m not a Shriner, but the Shriners are a part of the Masons.  Here, they have a blood drive, they have a container over there they throw change in it for the troops.  That kind of thing.

I really like helping people.  Anybody that needs help.  Now I’m looking forward to livin’ to be a hundred.