Pat O'Sullivan:
CLASS OF 1974
Delta Secondary High SchoolClass of 1974
Delta, BC
Grant MacEwan Community CollegeClass of 1977
Edmonton, AB
South Delta Secondary High SchoolClass of 1974
Delta, BC
North Delta Secondary High SchoolClass of 1974
Delta, BC
Delta Manor Elementary SchoolClass of 1969
Delta, BC
Pat's Story
Life
Since graduating I worked at a gas station pumping gas, as a janitor(that sucked!), for BC Railway as a trainman and worked in Chetwynd, Fort St.John and Williams Lake, a deckhand for BC Ferries on the Queen of Vancouver at Tsawwassen. While I worked for BC Ferries I was also an auxilliary constable with the Delta Police (1975 & 1976) where I decided that I wanted to be a police officer. I joined the Edmonton Police in 1976 and still there fighting crime and evil. I am married to Barbara (STEWART) from Grand Centre, AB. We have a son Sean born in 1980 and a daughter Chelsea born in 1983. We live in the hamlet of Sherwood Park (population approx. 78,000, which makes it a very large hamlet indeed)located on the east border of Edmonton in the County of Strathcona. We enjoy golfing and have traveled a bit over the years. We have been to Trinidad and Venezuela as well as to the northeastern USA and most of the southwestern USA. We plan on living in Arizona in the winter after retiring. I can retire from EPS any time after November 2001 if I wish but I have not decided on that yet. My philosophy in life is "treat others as you would have them treat you" and my philosophy at work is to "police others as I would have them police me." I wish everyone all the best and good luck in anything and everything you do. Lets all get the most out of our pension plans and live 100 years! MAY YOU BE IN HEAVEN AN HOUR BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD! (Irish proverb)
School
I was an average school kid of no particular fame or renown. I played volleyball in elementary school and so continued that in high school. I loved drama and was in several school plays. Never the lead though, mostly due to shyness and a little self-esteem problems typical of teenage boys with skin problems. I did have a lot of fun and made lots of friends. I also was part of a group of students who volunteered at the Variety Club Farm (handicapped adult community) where we helped out giving the kids (hardly kids as they were mostly in the their mid-30's or older) weekly excercize and played physically challenging games. I graduated in Feb 1974, having obtained all necessary credits and an urge to join the work force. School memories are many including three years of going to school from 1230PM - 530 PM because the school burned down twice, shop class, playing volleyball, attending the school basketball games with my battery-operated car horns, school dances, fights in the park after school, falling in love with every pretty girl in the school but not doing anything about it and just hanging out with all my friends on weekends to have fun.
College
I attended the Grant McEwen Community College Law Enforcement Course by virtue of being in the first Edmonton Police Service recruit class to be affiliate...Expand for more
d with the newly created Law Enforcement Course. We took many of the same classes that are now offered and when we graduated from recruit class we also received a GMCC diploma for the Law Enforcement Course. We were probably the only people who were paid to take the course. I was in recruit class #44 (Nov 76 - April 77) and attended the Mill Woods campus of GMCC , which at the time was the only campus.
It was a fun place for a bunch of mostly unmarried police recruits because at the time there was also students taking the social services and nursing courses, most of which were females.
I have also taken some supervisory development courses at the University of Alberta and dabbled in American Sign Language, also at Grant MacEwen College.
Workplace
After graduating from high school in 1974, I worked for a short time at a gas station. I then found a better paying (not necessarily better) job as a janitor. One job was cleaning the coal train caboose and lead locomotive, which was a filthy job. This lead to an interest in trains. I joined BC Rail and worked all over BC, finishing up in North Vancouver. I met up with old school friends and discovered that BC Ferries was hiring. So I joined BC Ferries. I had a long time desire to be a police officer so I joined the Delta Police as an Auxilliary. That lead to joining the Edmonton Police in 1976, where I am still. In my years with EPS I have seen a lot; some gruesome, some sad, but some funny and unbieveable. I learned to drive a motorcycle (Harley 1200) at a time when I had driven nothing bigger than a minibike. In Traffic Section I was involved in escorting such important people as members of the Royal family, Margaret Thatcher, etc, and flew in the CJCA Flying Tiger on a daily basis doing the traffic watch. I became fairly well known with the CJCA listeners at the time with "Cst Paddy O'Sullivan's traffic safety tip of the day". I've had a few inside jobs, the most interesting was writing policy which resulted in a few trips to places such as Boston and San Francisco for conferences. Nothing better than a trip that someone else pays for! Although I am not enjoying all the action as much as I used to, due to age mostly, I have had a great career, learned a lot, met a lot of people (good and bad) and don't regret for one moment my decision to be a cop.
UPDATE: March 2009
I retired in April 2008. I was re-hired by the Edmonton Police Service 2 weeks after I retired to do the same job as a civilian as I did as a police officer. It is part time so I work when I want and the rest of the time is mine to do as I see fit. In Nov 2008, we bought a fancy new Nikon D90 35 mm SLR digital camera with which I plan to start taking more photographs. Perhaps some day you will buy a scenery calendar with one of my photographs in it.
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