They say that for every door that closes another one opens. For people who retire, finding those doors can be difficult, especially for those whose lives have been one of service. For Officer Suzan, now Mr. Mitch Suzan, finding those doors won’t be difficult, but the public will need to adjust. He told me that when you are a police officer in a small town, “You are never off duty.”
When I met with him, literally minutes before the end of his last shift, he said, “Now when someone asks me ‘What happened?’ I can say, ‘I don’t know’”. Although he is leaving active police duty, he is not leaving the community he has come to love and which has come to love and appreciate him.
Suzan spent three years as a military police officer and 27 years as a police officer in Mattapoisett. He was quick to add that he has been married for 35 years to his wife Debbie, has three children, two of whom are married and one still in college. He is the very proud grandfather of two little grand daughters and calls himself the biggest kid his wife has to deal with. A real family man.
During his impressive career, Suzan shared that working with the kids in the schools is a highlight for him. He plans on making himself available to the school in some capacity in the future. And, here’s a little known fact about Suzan – he surfs. Who knew!
As a Navy brat, Suzan moved every year or two throughout his childhood and spent enough time in San Diego to catch the surfing bug. To this day, he surfs the northeast coastline from the National Seashore in Massachusetts to Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island. He said, “I’d like to start a surfing class for local kids.” He said that one of his passions would be teaching kids water safety skills and how to surf.
Who wouldn’t want to be out in the fresh air and sunshine after 30 years of dealing with all that a police officer has to deal with in the course of a shift. “Mattapoisett is a small town, but small towns still have big city problems,” he said. In his career, he has seen the darker, sadder side of humanity from car accidents, to suicides, to drug overdoses – life for a police officer is one peppered with these harsh realities. But there were those lighter moments as well. He said that his first traffic stop was rather comic, “I asked for the driver’s license and registration. I got that plus a ‘get out of jail card’ from the Monopoly game!”
Suzan came to his love of Mattapoisett through his father, Frank, a former selectman and resident of the town. Although Mitch didn’t grow up here, he wanted his children to enjoy the small town childhood he didn’t have as a military dependent. Suzan said, “I didn’t have any long-term friendships.” Moving every year or so meant he didn’t get to establish those types of relationships, ones he wanted his own children to have. Today he lives in a house that has been in his family for three generations – right here in Mattapoisett.
What’s the biggest thing Suzan is looking forward to – “Having weekends off with my family.” He hasn’t had a full weekend off since 1984. Now he’ll get to enjoy all the weekends in his future, and maybe hang ten to boot.
By Marilou Newell
