John Pearce retires after 38 years as Loudonville-Perrysville Schools custodian

June 30 was the last day on the job for John Pearce, who has served as a custodian in the Loudonville-Perrysville Schools for 38 years.

Pearce, 59, spent most of his career as a custodian in the R.F. McMullen Elementary School (grades K-3).

“Everybody knows me as Mr. Pearce,” he said in an interview a few days after his retirement.

“My wife, Rynajane, and I bought a house on Loudon Avenue last winter and are in the process of rehabbing it,” he said. “As we looked around the property shortly after buying it, my neighbor to the north came over and immediately referred to me as Mr. Pearce. He attended school at McMullen 30 years before, and remembered me by that name.”

Pearce said at one time he and custodian Steve Marshall, at the neighboring C.E. Budd School, talked about writing a book about their experiences with kids and teachers in their respective buildings. “It would have been hilarious,” he said with a smile.

Pearce is the fifth of six children of Richard and Grace Pearce of Loudonville. He attended Loudonville-Perrysville Schools and, in 1980, after leaving school, enrolled in a boiler operator class at the Ashland County-West Holmes Career Center.

After completing the class, then Loudonville-Perrysville Schools Maintenance Supervisor Chuck Knight hired him to a part time-position as a boiler operator. Prior to that he had worked in a security position with CPP, a firm which provided security services at the old Flxible plant. He worked in the security position for seven years, working part time for the schools much of that time.

Started working for the Loudonville schools in the late 1980s

Then in 1986 he was offered a full-time boiler operator job in the Ashland City Schools. At about the same time, Knight posted a new job in the Loudonville schools, which Pearce eventually took. In 1991, he and custodian Joe Rambacher, who had worked at the McMullen School, decided to switch positions.

“The McMullen position paid $1 more an hour, which was a pretty big deal for me at the time,” Pearce said.

In his career, Pearce has worked for five principals, starting with Steve Brown, who he remembers as “a really cool guy. Just a few days after I started, I was carrying a wastebasket full of trash out to the dumpster at the end of the day. For some reason, I stumbled, and spilled the trash on the playground. Mr. Brown saw me and laughed, saying ‘I see you’re off to a good start with your new job!’ But then, while wearing a suit, helped me pick up the spilled trash.”

Following Brown were Sally Warbel (“I worked with her the longest, and I have lots of stories I could tell about her”), Patti Miller, Annette Gorrell and finally Carol Allerding.

Then there were the teachers she worked with, “so many teachers. I had memorable, wonderful experiences with them. Among them, standing out, was Elizabeth Burns, because she had so much love for her kids. I never heard her raising her voice to any child.”

He also mentioned the head cooks at McMullen over the years, Marilyn Mowery, Dar Bilger and Mary Davis. “Each was a wonderful person and we worked well together while having fun doing it,” he said. “Marilyn made fantastic cinnamon rolls that all the staff at the school really enjoyed."

Job entailed 'doing everything at the school'

Pearce said his job entailed “doing everything at the school, from cleaning up messes when kids got sick, to shoveling and plowing snow, to fixing things and, of course, cleaning everything, including finishing floors and clearing plugged drains, and, years ago, boiler work.”

Deciding to retire was a difficult decision for Pearce, “because I loved the job, enjoyed the teachers, and because I really love kids. Leaving stirs numerous feelings. And a lot of it involves little things I did, like teaching a child how to tie his shoes. Kids would get in trouble and be assigned to work with me for a few days. After doing so, they said they wanted to work with me all the time. That made me feel really good.”

He also praised the level of support he received in his job from fellow members of the school’s maintenance department

Major challenge, he said, was finding insurance after receiving it for so long at the school, but I did.”

One thing Pearce missed from his earlier days at McMullen “was the Hosts program, where we had numbers of volunteers helping work with the kids and assisting teachers. When that program ended, something was lost.”

Pearce has lived in the mobile home park just south of Stake’s IGA since he purchased his unit in 1986. This winter he bought a home at 206 Loudon Ave. which he, with a major assist from his younger brother Tom, is completely rehabilitating.

“My goal is to be able to move in this fall,” he said.

Married wife Rynajane from the Philippines three years ago

Wife Rynajane is from the Philippines, and they were married three years ago. They have one daughter, Elizabeth, age 2.

Rynajane, who speaks three languages, works as a state tested nursing assistant for two different health-care agencies, and receives assignments at several area nursing homes.

After they move into their new home, Pearce said he hopes they can travel to the Philippines to visit her parents.

Even before meeting his wife, Pearce was an ardent traveler, visiting the Philippines, Alaska, Guatemala, Italy, Great Britain and Scotland.

He said he has several hobbies, but all on are on the back burner because he has two important and time-consuming jobs, “rehabbing the house and watching our daughter when Rynajane is working,” he said.

This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: THIS WEEK'S PERSONALITY: Pearce retires as school custodian