Sherrick adds Elm City ambassador to list of service roles

Jun. 25—Even after he served in four branches of the armed forces, living and training in states from coast to coast and in Germany and Japan, Keene beckoned a worldly veteran back to his hometown to foster friendships in his retirement.

Philip Sherrick, 55, says his service roles — in the U.S. Marine Corps, Air National Guard, Army Reserve and Navy Medical Service Corps — taught him values of discipline but also of bridging social differences.

"What makes me happy is when I bring strangers together and then they become buddies," Sherrick said. "What the military really does is they put people with all different walks of life, personalities, attitudes [and] communication styles, and they say to figure it out."

Perhaps no one's better equipped to perform that duty than him, according to Ret. Army Sgt. Dr. Tom Litney, who was an occupational therapist in the Army Reserve when he met Sherrick and today is the occupational therapy supervisor for the Central Texas Veterans Healthcare System.

Litney, of Temple, Texas, and Sherrick have remained close friends for nearly 20 years, with Litney declaring that Keene has "a goldmine in Philip Sherrick."

"Phil's very inquisitive ... [and] he's not really interested in conveying much about himself; he'd much rather find out about you and what your needs are," Litney said.

For Sherrick, congeniality has been a core means of navigating life after he said he spent his adolescence between seven foster families. He said he feels his biological parents "just didn't have the skills to be parents."

So, he ended up in foster care in 9th grade out of his own volition, but it wasn't a typical experience. Rather than through a state system, he said he found families that were interested in raising him while he attended Kurn Hattin Homes for Children in Westminster, Vt., starting at age 15.

"I'd stay as long as the folks felt welcome, then I'd find some other [family]," Sherrick said. "I really never wanted to wear my visit out."

But his last family made an impact, charting the course for his time in the military over 35 years. He met Roger Brooks, a Marine Corps officer and minister who became something of an adoptive father to Sherrick.

To Sherrick, Brooks was a leader, ministering in Swanzey at the Westport Village Church and while working full-time selling paper for Union Camp Corp. He also founded the Village Church in West Swanzey in 1993, according to his 2019 obituary. Brooks had five children with his wife, Phyllis, but that didn't stop the couple from taking in Sherrick as one of their own.

"I thought I was going to be a truck driver like my dad," Sherrick said of his biological father. "I really didn't push myself ... until I met with [Brooks], and they would say, 'No, you're going to have more for your life.' "

Sherrick graduated from Monadnock Regional High School in 1985, where he said he was voted "most friendly" and that he had the "best personality." After taking a gap year in 1985, he joined the Marines in Brooks' footsteps.

"What was really cool about the Marines is I met a lot of dysfunctional guys like me from a similar upbringing, and we became best buds," he said. "Once you establish you're a Marine, you're a brother; you've proven yourself, so to speak."

The Marines helped Sherrick discover his self-worth, he said, serving as a combat engineer as he advanced from boot camp at Parris Island in South Carolina to Okinawa, Japan, then to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. But while he found purpose in helping people, he said he didn't want to break his back over it in a literal sense by way of construction work.

That's where the Air National Guard stepped in, which Sherrick said allowed him to forge an opportunity into college and find what he felt was his calling in occupational therapy. He said he served as a medical service specialist and EMT for the 104th Massachusetts Air National Guard while studying at what's now Worcester State University. He received a bachelor's in occupational therapy with a minor in psychology in 1995.

"[In the Air Force], I supported the pilots and everybody else who supports the 104th Fighter Wing ... kind of like nursing stuff," Sherrick said. "I wanted to live a lifestyle where I could really help people but also be respected, and in my experience with the Air Force, they treated their people really well."

After four years in medical positions and earning licensure as an occupational therapist, Sherrick sought to make a career leap with his newfound degree by transferring it to his Air Force duties. Applying to become an occupational therapist in the Air Force turned out to be long shot as it was considered a cushy job that rarely saw a vacancy.

"At that time, there were only 13 occupational therapists in the whole Air Force," he said. "So, I had to wait for one person to get out, and no one got out in 10 years."

He didn't have 10 years to wait. But the Army Reserve was an option, and it was his gateway into his third branch of service. Sherrick said he was accepted in 2001 to serve for the 405th Combat Support Hospital in Chester, Vt., followed by other hospitals in Boston, Topeka, Kan., and Washington, D.C.

In Kansas, some of Sherrick's most significant life events happened. He deployed to Germany, earned a demanding certification as a hand specialist and had two daughters — Elizabeth and Lilian — with his then-wife.

It was there at Fort Riley he also met Litney, whose wife Sherrick had been deployed with in Germany.

"At that time, he really helped me motivate me," Litney said. "The Army has a lot of physical demands, and a lot of health care personnel are not the most physically active. But Phil was always a great motivator for that, [getting others to] go out for a run."

Litney jokes about a time he recalls his family having dinner with Sherrick in St. Louis as Sherrick was attending a hand-specialist conference.

"We went to The Cheesecake Factory, and he was like, 'If you're going to have cheesecake, we're going to have to go for a run after that,' " Litney said. "And I was like, 'I guess I won't be eating any cheesecake because I'm not going for a run.' "

Sherrick still had his sights set on a full-time job, though, and his hand-specialist work with the Army Reserve was only contracted. The Air Force still had no openings by 2009, he said, but a retired lieutenant colonel advised him to look in another place: the Navy. Sure enough, he took an offer and became part of the branch's Medical Service Corps.

"In the Navy, you do more of your job as an occupational therapist; when you're in the Army you're a soldier doing field time, guns and weapons," Sherrick said, explaining why he joined the Navy. "In the Air Force you're doing nothing but your job and in the Marine Corps you do everything."

Litney said he couldn't believe what he was hearing at the time. It was only a couple years after meeting Sherrick that he learned his friend had served in two other branches before he reached the Army Reserve.

"I said that sounded risky, because if [Sherrick] resigned his commission, then what happens if the Navy didn't take him?" he said. "The Army was downsizing, but he said he was going to take that risk. Later, he called me up and said he's going active-duty Navy, and I said, 'You're kidding.' "

More opportunities awaited Sherrick in the Navy. For several years he pursued a master's degree in human relations at the University of Oklahoma, both taking classes in person in Norman, Okla., and as well as night school when he was later in Washington, D.C. He returned to Japan and was stationed in Okinawa and Iwakuni, worked in naval hospitals in Maryland and California and last settled in Jacksonville, Fla. From there, despite encouragement from others to pick somewhere else to retire, his aspirations lied in the Granite State.

Now back in Keene, Sherrick may be out of commission, but it isn't stopping him from his lifelong aim of linking strangers. He said he hopes it'll be a means of reconnecting with his beloved native community while he adjusts to having his own house in a place where he once bounced between families.

"I've put a lot of thought into it ... and what I think I'm doing is maybe [organizing] Facebook groups to start off or having town hall meetings as a place people can come to so they don't feel alone, so they feel connected as a place where they can grow," Sherrick said.

Sherrick didn't specify his plans but said ultimately, he wants to make a "friendship group" for area residents with shy personalities who have trouble meeting new people.

Describing Sherrick as something of a goodwill ambassador for the Elm City, Litney noted that his friend had expressed intent for years on returning to his hometown over other places.

"If there's one thing that's constant throughout the time I have known Phil, he has continually told me that he is from Keene," Litney said. "As a manager of therapists, I would suggest things like he go into travel contracting or something where you're traveling around. He would say, 'I don't need to do that because I know ... I'm going back to Keene.' "

Tim Nail can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1436, or tnail@keenesentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter at @timmnail.