Former Churchill police chief overcame tough upbringing
There’s tough upbringings, then there’s Richard H. James’ childhood.
“He was one of six kids and grew up in a converted chicken coop in Midway, Washington County,” said his son Richard W. James. “His older brother died in a car accident and his younger brother drowned in a strip mine.”
Despite — or perhaps because of — his bumpy start in life, Mr. James worked hard to distinguish himself and build a successful life.
And he did, serving for 36 years with the Churchill Borough police, including 21 years as chief.
He’s credited with saving the lives of several people in 1971 — pulling them from a burning ambulance — and he doggedly pursued an unsolved murder for decades.
Mr. James, 79, of Churchill, died Sunday of a heart attack.
Times were tough for his family growing up.
“He was so incredibly poor that he had to go out and collect coal to heat the house and keep the stove going,” said his son, a lawyer in Churchill.
Mr. James worked construction before an advertisement seeking police officers in the nation’s capital caught his eye.
“He had the right mental and physical qualifications, so he applied,” said his son.
“He became a cop in D.C. and in 1963 he guarded President Kennedy’s body. He also worked at the first Beatles concert. He didn’t even know who they were. He just thought it was noise.”
Later, Mr. James worked as a Pennsylvania state trooper, patrolling the turnpike before he accepted a job with the Churchill police in 1969. He was named chief in 1984.
In July 1971, he was among the first responders assisting a stroke patient when the ambulance they were riding in suddenly caught fire due to an exploding oxygen tank.
Acting quickly, Mr. James jumped from the moving vehicle and pulled several people out, according to news reports at the time.
The driver was badly injured and later died because his seat belt clasp melted in the intense heat, trapping him inside for a time. And despite his strenuous efforts, Mr. James was unable to rescue the patient after the aluminum brackets that secured his stretcher to the ambulance floor also melted.
Mr. James also never gave up on solving cold cases, including the 1977 unsolved murder of Barbara Jean Lewis, a 30-year-old woman who was found strangled in a trash container outside the Brackenridge Civic Association in Churchill.
Even 26 years and hundreds of interviews later, he continued following leads in the hopes of solving the case, telling the Pittsburgh PostGazette in an October 2003 article that he hadn’t given up hope. “They always put him on those kind of cases because he was a smart guy,” said his son.
His father loved being chief of police and serving the community, he said.
“He always took pride in the fact that he worked his way up. He identified himself through that job,” he said. “It was the epitome of his life. He’s even being buried in his chief’s uniform.”
His father was determined to give him a better childhood than he had, the younger Mr. James said.
“He was a strong person and he was always firm,” he said. “When I was 11, he bought a duplex. By the time I went to college, he had 40 units. He was definitely a gogetter, hardworking, caring kind of person.”
Later in his career, Mr. James was elected president of the Western Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association.
After he retired, Mr. James devoted countless hours to his love of antique Chevrolet cars.
“His first car was a 1950 Chevy convertible,” his son said. “So of course, he wanted to restore it and put it back together. He always loved cars.”
His father became quite an enthusiast, traveling to antique car shows and collecting other cars, the younger Mr. James said.
In 1961, Mr. James married Dorothy “Nikki” Speicher. As her health declined in later years, he stepped in to care for her, his son said. She died in 1989.
“Dad was amazingly good at taking care of her,” he recalled.
In 2001, he married Mary Ann Thurston, who survives.
His father was a trustworthy, humble man who put others before himself, the younger Mr. James said.
“He was always there and he was reliable,” he said. “You could always count on him. He would want to be remembered as a good person who served the community well.”
Along with his wife and son, Mr. James is survived by his sisters Naomi Ord and Betty Srednicki. He was preceded in death by his brothers John Kenneth,
Robert and Paul James.
A service is planned Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. at Jobe Funeral Home, Inc., 118 Shaw Ave., Turtle Creek.
Interment will follow at Church Hill Cemetery.