Ed Wosiak is no stranger to constant work. Being a first generation American raised early on by a widowed mother who immigrated from Poland, he grew up with the mindset that hard work pays off. After earning his third retirement by this stage in his life, that belief has now become his reality.

“It’s just another day in paradise,” Wosiak said. 

Throughout his junior and senior years in high school, Wosiak worked in a factory from Monday  through Thursday for 10 hours a day every week. However, he knew that he didn’t want to work in a factory forever. After living his early life surrounded by crime and poverty and seeing his brother-in-law make his way to become a police officer, he decided that he wanted to become a policeman as well. 

Once he graduated high school, he attended Montgomery County Community College for police science and later transferred to West Chester University for criminal justice. Being too young to join the police department at the time that he graduated, he then decided to work as a military police officer.

As a military police officer, he spent 3 years working alongside the German police patrolling the streets of Nuremberg, Germany. Once he got out of Germany, he went into the military reserves. He then got married and got activated to go to Grenada and Haiti, among other locations. He was also involved in Operation Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom. 

Meanwhile, after he got out of the active army and was in the reserves, he was hired as a police officer for Towamencin Township and worked there for 26 years. He spent most of his time patrolling, but he occasionally dealt with accidents and other incidents. During his time as a police officer, he was also highly involved with the North Penn School District through his wife and kids. 

“I got involved when they started the RIF program. I was the man in the yellow hat with [Curious George]. I did that for 10 years. Plus, [Towamencin police officers] used to work at the football games, so I’ve been involved with the school district probably since 1981. And I was a D.A.R.E. officer at Inglewood Elementary School for about 10 years,” Wosiak said. 

In 1992, he eventually started working part-time as a bus driver for the district after his wife insisted that he try it, since one of her part-time employees was running the Transportation Department at the time. He did that all while working as a police officer, being in the reserves, and doing landscaping.

Wosiak later retired from being in the reserves in 2005 and then retired from the police department in 2007. He then worked full-time as a bus driver between 2007 to 2008.

“I loved driving the bus. A lot of people don’t realize that it’s not easy driving a bus. You come in the morning then you leave and come back in the afternoon, so your day is broken up. Also, during that time period, I was doing landscaping. I [woke] up in the morning, [took] a shower, [drove] the bus, [went] home, [got] changed, cut a couple lawns, [went] home, [took] a shower again, [came] back, [drove] the bus again in the afternoon, [got] done that, [went] home, cut a couple more lawns, and then [took] another shower before I went to bed. I was running around, taking three showers a day,” Wosiak said. “It was fun doing it for a while, but that wasn’t what I wanted to do.”

When there was a job opening for security in the district in 2008, he stopped working as a bus driver and went to apply and got hired. He continued landscaping for another year.

“The nice thing about working here at security is that I see kids later on in life like even a couple of weeks ago, I bumped into somebody at Lowe’s and before they used to have a night school here, and I used to be security for the night school. They started at around 3:30 until 7. I bumped into one of the kids that went to the night school because for whatever reason they couldn’t attend school during the day. But this kid made it out pretty good. He has a full time job now, he’s talking about getting married, and, you know, he’s been at the job for several years now,” Wosiak said. “When you see somebody like that, you feel good that they overcame the hurdles that they had in high school, and now they’re mature, they’re doing better for themselves. He went through hard times and now he’s doing better. It makes you feel a lot better when you hear success stories with kids.”

“This is one of the best school districts that a retired police officer can work at. That was [many police officers’] dream—to retire and work for the school district,” Wosiak added. “I was fortunate enough to have it because I have my foot in the door from driving the bus.”

Wosiak has immersed himself in the North Penn community through his career and involvement in events. He was able to see it transform to what it is today.

“I was fortunate to see how the school district has grown over the years,” Wosiak said. “I got to see the football field they put in there, the swimming pool, K-Pod. I saw how the whole school district is just developing and changing and the amount that this whole area has grown.”

Wosiak has seen it all, whether it is out in the war zone or out on Sumneytown Pike or in the halls of North Penn High School. Throughout these three main careers, he’s dealt with different circumstances and different people.

“At the police department, things happen where you get a call, and you have to react to it and your adrenaline starts flowing. In the military, you’re prepared to go on a mission ahead of time. A lot of times you know what’s going to happen. As a security guard, I basically help the kids out, you know, try to lead them towards the right path,” Wosiak said.

Working multiple jobs throughout his life has given Wosiak many experiences that helped shape the way he views the world. Looking back, he takes pride in all that he’s done.

“Everything you do in life makes you what you are. I guess I’m proud of what I did, serving in the military and the police and working for a school district,” Wosiak said. “If I knew I could live 100 years, I’d stay here longer, but life is too short. You’ve got to move on. But with the security, I’m glad I was here. I’m glad I put my time in. I’m glad I did what I did.”

“I’ll miss everything. I’ll miss the other security personnel. I’m going to miss the teachers, the administrators, the school, the kids, even the bad kids—I’ll miss them all,” Wosiak said. “I can’t say there’s anything that I won’t miss, I’ll miss everything.” 

Once he retires, he plans to travel the country in his RV and spend more time with his family.

“I plan to go down to Williamsburg and then up to the Poconos and down to Annapolis for a wedding with my nieces and see the family down there,” Wosiak said. “I’d like to go down to Kentucky, Texas, and visit some places that I’ve never been to before and places that I’ve been before. I want to see the way other people live, see how beautiful this country is, and appreciate what we have.”

After working 29 years with the military, 26 years with the police department, 29 years with the school district, and now heading to his third retirement, Wosiak has learned that life is too short and hopes that his colleagues and the students he’s encountered can remember to enjoy life to the fullest.

“Get along with each other, smile, make each other laugh, and enjoy life. It’ll be gone before you know it,” Wosiak said. “You have to enjoy life. It’s too short. Go out with a bang.”