Retired

There’s no more morning wake-up alarm for me, but my brain didn’t get the message. My eyes popped open at 5:30 am. The difference for me this Monday morning is that I don’t need to go to work. I have retired. Should I get up? Should I try to go back to sleep? I got up.

The decision to retire was somewhat spur-of-the-moment for me. I was very happy working my part-time job in the neighboring town. I enjoyed the 8-mile e-bike commute to work and the same trip back on the good weather days. What pushed me to pull the plug was that my wife, Kari, had made the decision to retire from her career. After spending 30 years working at a super-high-level and stressful job, she decided to retire on July 1. She was very proud of what she had accomplished in her career, and rightfully so. But it was time to get out of the rat race. When she made her intention known at the beginning of the year, she stayed until July.

When Kari made her decision, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do the same. But when the opportunity exists to make up missed time with the love of your life and make the most of your golden years, I decided that I wanted that option. I hinted around with my bosses that I was thinking about it, but finally requested a sit-down conversation and advised them that I was leaving in July, too.

College

I had an unusual career path to retirement. When I was entering college at Western Illinois University in 1982, I learned that I needed to declare a major. I flipped through the college handbook that they give to incoming freshmen, which lists majors and classes. Most of those majors were not going to be easy for a kid who barely had a C average in high school. I came upon a major called “Law Enforcement Administration”, which seemed like something that I could get through easily enough and enjoy as a career. It was basically a major leading to a job as a cop.

Sometime in that freshman year, I sat in on a cold case presentation from the Lake County, IL, Sheriff’s Department. They covered the death of a young girl by the name of Lisa Slusser, including the crime scene and all the forensic evidence that came with it. I was in awe of the whole presentation, and immediately wanted to study to work in the field of forensic science.

I met with my academic advisor, who had already seen that I had struggled with Accounting and Computer Science classes, and was not sure if she thought that I could pull it off. Her advice was to take some science-based classes and see how I did. Not knowing anything about Chemistry, Physics, and Calculus, I somehow found myself getting through it. Most of the credit for that goes to my roommate, Dave. Dave and I have been lifelong friends, having gone from kindergarten to college together, and he was studying Pre-Dentistry and taking many of the same courses. Dave’s homework assistance and study work ethic rubbed off on me, and it allowed me to get through some of the toughest subjects that I had ever attempted.

I declared a double major, adding Chemistry to the Law Enforcement Administration major, but with my sister coming to Western my senior year, and the need to add a fifth year for me to get the remaining coursework done to satisfy the major, I opted for making Chemistry my minor.

My last semester in college was an internship, which I was able to do at the Chicago Police Department Crime Lab, at 11th & State, Chicago, Illinois. What I learned there in one semester was more educational and interesting than what I learned the entire time I was in college.

The Career Path

Upon graduating, I ended up working at my late father’s former workplace, a liquid fuels pipeline facility, where I would mow grass and do basic maintenance around the facility. A month or two after working there, I got a call from a private crime lab director asking if I would be interested in interviewing for a position at his lab.

Forensic Scientist – Northern IL Police Crime Lab, 1986-1996

The Northern Illinois Police Crime Laboratory was located in Highland Park, Illinois. NIPCL was a private lab that provided crime lab services to about 35 police agencies, designed to give an alternative to the very backlogged Illinois State Police and Chicago Police crime labs. My name had been passed to the director (a former CPD lab guy), and he was looking for a trainee. I was hired in August 1986.

Working at the NIPCL was an experience that was just what I was hoping for. I succeeded in finding a job in forensics. My main duties were in Chemistry, analyzing toxicology (DUI) cases, and drug cases. Seeing that we were a small lab, I was more of a generalist rather than a specialist and would also be involved in trace examinations and some fingerprint work as well. Imagine my surprise when I found a box of evidence-related items on the shelf one day labeled “Lisa Slusser Murder.” It was a full-circle moment, seeing that the lab had handled the same murder case that had piqued my interest in the career back in college.

I got to be included in a lot of high-profile cases, including the Laurie Dann shootings, the Dr. Martin Sullivan killing, the Suzanne Olds killing, and the biggie, the Brown’s Chicken Massacre in Palatine, Illinois. I played a significant role in the finding and retention of the evidence that convicted the killers in that case.

The lack of a degree in a natural science would lead to my position being eliminated due to the lab seeking accreditation at the time, which had a natural science degree requirement. After almost ten productive years, I packed up my stuff in a box and headed home to my wife and new baby in February of 1996.

Kari was very supportive as I looked for a new job to keep us afloat. It was scary losing a job while having a new baby as well as a new home, wondering how we would be able to keep living there. Kari asked me if I would mind if she also looked for a job. Of course, I had no problem with that at all. She would find an entry-level position at a major health insurance company in Chicago, where she would quickly rise up the ladder, and lead to a 30-year career as an executive. My losing my job was serendipity. Her finding that specific job and succeeding the way she did is 100% the reason why we are both retiring comfortably and at an earlier age than most people.

By July 1996, I would answer an ad for a Civilian Evidence Technician and be once again gainfully employed.

Civilian Evidence Technician – Schaumburg Police Department, 1996-1999

Schaumburg, Illinois, is a fairly large western suburb of Chicago. The department was fairly large as well and could employ a non-sworn civilian in the role of evidence technician. My background in evidence helped me get the job. My responsibilities were to process crime scenes and to also work in the darkroom, processing mugshots and crime scene film, and printing photos.

There were some interesting crime scenes to process, and I worked on one case in which the evidence I gathered helped convict a couple of guys who had killed a guy in town. I also backed up the property room guy, helping with maintaining the evidence and property we kept. That guy was eventually fired, and I’m not really sure why, but I was told that I would be moving into that role. I wasn’t sure I wanted to do that, and the sergeant informed me that I really wasn’t in a position to say no. Seeing that our day care provider was moving out of state, I thought I might be more of an asset raising our two young kids as a stay-at-home dad. Kari agreed, and I left SPD in 1999.

Mr. Mom – Home, 1999-2013

Being a Mr. Mom was such a highlight in my life. Watching our now three kids, Ben, Ashley, and Rebecca, was an opportunity that I was grateful to have. I never had a moment of regret leaving the workforce to be a full-time stay-at-home parent. The idea was that I would be a Mr. Mom until they were in school full-time, and then find another job, but as Kari was rising in the ranks in the corporate world, it just wasn’t a necessity to supplement our income. My mother had moved in with us when we built a new house, and it was great having that family dynamic for my kids as well. Plus, it was such a great asset to have a live-in babysitter, too.

Mom took ill and passed away in 2012. By then, Ben and Ashley were in high school, and Rebecca was approaching junior high school, and I decided that I needed to find something to do with my free time, now that I no longer needed to be there for my mom. I replied to a records clerk position ad in the paper with a local police department and got an interview.

Property Room Specialist – New Lenox Police Department, 2013-2026

Kari and I both grew up in New Lenox, Illinois, a southwest suburb of Chicago. It was a sleepy little bedroom community with about 7000 citizens when I was a kid. Now it has about 28,000 people living there. New Lenox is next to our home in Mokena, so when I was looking in the weekly local paper, I spied an ad for a records clerk with NLPD. I applied and interviewed, and was pleased to see the deputy chief in the interview had been a friend of my sister’s when we were young. We had a nice interview, and I went home pleased with how it went. A few days later, I received a call from human resources saying that they were hiring someone else for the position, but were wondering if I would be interested in managing their evidence and property room. I didn’t hesitate at all when saying yes to that job offer. It was a little surprising to say that, seeing that I left Schaumburg because I didn’t want to do that job. But I had experience with managing evidence/property, and a strong background in the software program that they were purchasing to manage it.

I hadn’t seen the property room until my first day, and of course, I was walking into a room full of stuff that hadn’t been managed very well for several years. NLPD was building a new police station, and the goal was to get rid of as much property as we could prior to moving. I got busy and worked hard at reducing our inventory while entering all the stuff we had to keep into our new evidence management system. Eventually, I got the unit to the point where it was “caught up,” meaning that there was more stuff being disposed of than there was coming in. I’m glad I was able to be productive in my role.

It was here that I met several people who became my friends. To avoid forgetting to name someone, I won’t list them, but nearly everyone I worked with became a special person in my life. Retiring from NLPD and leaving those people was the hardest part of deciding to retire. I will stay in touch.

So there you have it. Three jobs in law enforcement, none of which were sworn positions, which is quite unique if you ask me. And I’ll never retire from being a dad.

Retirement

I’m not sure what retirement means for Kari and me yet. We don’t have any immediate plans. We just plan to take each day as it comes and see what retirement life leads us to. I’m sure we will travel a lot, and I will continue to do my running and triathlon adventures to keep me busy. Hopefully, someday soon we will have grandkids to chase around. Until then, one day at a time.

Thanks for reading.