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02/18/2013 11:00 PMMadison resident John Mathieu is redefining retirement in a big way.
John worked for Southern Connecticut Gas for 36 years. For most of his career, he was in charge of the firm's construction and maintenance department. For his last five years there, he was the director of corporate engineering. That responsibility meant he was on-call 24 hours a day much of the time, he says.
"It was a little stressful, but I enjoyed the job," John comments. "I enjoyed working with people."
Now, John works with more people than ever, in more contexts than ever. He volunteers at the Madison Food Pantry twice a month and is a eucharistic minister at St. Margaret's Church, where, among other ventures, he trains the altar servers and sometimes serves at funerals.
He is also active in the local council of the Knights of Columbus.
"I've been the treasurer forever," he says.
John has served on the Madison Inland Wetland Agency for about 20 years-"I enjoy that-that's part of giving back to the community."
If that wasn't enough, John has also volunteered for Habitat for Humanity, lending a helping hand to various projects held annually on the Green pre-fabricating houses for those in need.
There's more: John volunteers at the outdoor thrift shop at A Better Chance (ABC) three hours a week, and one of the tasks he is well known for is repairing all of the bikes donated to ABC for its annual sale in June, at no cost.
"I've been doing that since the spring of 2000," he says. "I've always been into bicycles. I have a quasi-shop at my house in my garage. All the neighborhood kids come over because I have an electric pump and they like to inflate their tires. I enjoy doing repairs. Unless they need extensive work I won't charge."
John and his wife Barbara, who is originally from New Haven, met on a blind date. They have five children and 10 grandchildren. The Mathieus take care of their youngest granddaughter, who is 3, on Monday mornings.
The Mathieus had retired together, John says, but after about a year, Barbara wanted to return to work. She works 20 hours a week at Business and Legal Reports in Old Saybrook.
"She enjoyed her job," John explains. "She went for years and years without working until our five kids were all in school, so she wasn't ready to retire when I was."
As for John, he feels a similar calling to be of service.
"I need to keep myself occupied, keep myself busy, and feel that I'm doing something to contribute," he points out.
In their free time, the Mathieus like to travel. They recently returned from a week in Florida and plan to visit the Canadian Rockies in Alberta, Canada, next fall.
"Typically we'll take an organized tour where you can sit back and relax and just enjoy things and let somebody else do the driving," John says.
John is originally from Putnam, in Connecticut's northeastern "Quiet Corner," but in his travels through the state before moving to Madison in 1968, he says there were literally signs telling him where he would end up.
"The New Haven Gas Company had a huge tank with a checkerboard on the top, and that was one of the landmarks that caught my eye when I would drive through Connecticut. Ironically, I ended up working for them," he says, adding, "Something that always caught my eye while driving through Madison was Mungertown Road, and now I live right off of Mungertown Road."
John not only volunteers for local organizations, but he also keeps in touch with the network he cultivated during his decades working for the gas company.
"When I was working, I belonged to a number of trade associations-New England Gas Association, American Gas Association-and I'm still in contact with some of the people I met through that."
During their recent vacation, John and Barbara visited a former colleague of John's who had worked for Baystate Gas Company in Massachusetts and now lives in Florida. John also currently belongs to an organization of operating gas company people in the Northeast who meet periodically in New York City. John attends those meetings when he can, but that is where he draws the line on immersion in his former career.
"A lot of the people who retired when I retired went to work with contractors who worked for the gas company, and I was not interested at all in doing any of that. I enjoyed that career, but that's over with," he explains. "Now I'm interested in doing something unrelated, and that's why I'm doing all the volunteer work."
John's life these days is full of three-day weekends with his wife, traveling, and visiting his grandchildren.
Oh, and the occasional volunteering endeavor.
To nominate a Person of the Week, email Melissa Babcock at m.babcock@shorepublishing.com.