Highway Department with Personal Time for Public Service

Having found stable, interesting employment with an opportunity to advance to management, he still had off-duty time to help his community with public service as a volunteer firefighter.

FAMILY BACKGROUND

Franklin Harper Sr. (FH) was born in the Philadelphia area. His father worked in a trade while his passions included volunteer firefighting and deep-sea fishing. His mother was a homemaker.  

CHILDHOOD

FH’ father took him deep-sea fishing when FH was young. Although allergic to his catches, he collected dozens of rods and fished for the rest of his life. During his childhood, FH played softball and baseball. He was also a member of the Lawnside Junior Chamber of Commerce, which often featured local members of the business community discussing their careers.  

EDUCATION

Following high school graduation, FH studied ‘culinary arts’ (the preparation, cooking and presentation of food, usually in the form of meals) at a local vo-tech school. 

FIRST ADULT JOBS ARE NEVER A BINDING CAREER COMMITMENT

Having earned his Associate’s degree, FH needed to quickly find a paying-job to support himself financially. After reviewing newspaper ‘jobs available’ ads and talking to friends, FH soon found employment in several ‘dead-end’ jobs not requiring even a high school diploma, involving food preparation. Some food prep jobs might eventually advance to ‘chef’ but there was no such path forward known to the kitchen staff where FH was the entry-level employee at each restaurant. So, FH concluded he would likely be stuck preparing the same food until he retired, unless he found a job with more opportunities to expand his duties and responsibilities. 

‘DEAD-END’ JOBS DEFINED

 ‘Dead-end’ jobs are those with little or no chance of career development and advancement into a better position. Dead-end work is usually regarded as unskilled, not requiring any extensive training. Examples include working as shelf stackers, cleaners, call center agents, clerks, fast-food prep and servers or other boring, repetitive jobs where the pay is low and the hours are long. Most dead-end jobs offer little to no transferable skills’ training and may hinder workers from pursuing careers in other companies. Career counselors recommend accepting such jobs only if the individual has a pre-calculated exit strategy to avoid being stuck permanently within a position of no opportunities. 

PUBLIC SERVICE TRADES AS A CAREER

After working in several ‘dead end’ jobs, FH found employment within the county highway department, which offered the possibility of eventually advancing to management positions. 

FH started his highway department activities with entry-level work (e.g. mowing the lawn and emptying trash cans in local public parks), soon advancing to operating county-owned equipment. While serving as both ‘Road Inspector’ and driving snow-plow trucks throughout the county with his seniority status, FH made sure that Lawnside roads were always his first priority. 

(Editor’s note – I recall that the short, ‘no outlet’ street where a politician from a different state and county resided, was always the first to be plowed during a snowstorm. Amazing coincidence…….. not!)

A ‘9-5’ CAREER LEAVES TIME FOR VOLUNTEER, COMMUNITY SERVICE

Editor’s note – It is important for everyone (no alreadyt the beneficiary of a family trust or purchaser of a winning lottery ticket), who needs to support herself or himself financially, to have a job or career which may only be useful to that individual and/or employer – for example, stacking shelves, cleaning houses, keyboarding documents. Some careers have no defined ‘stop-work’ time (e.g. 5 p.m.) such as obstetricians delivering babies, military generals in charge of both offensive and defensive combat strategies, CPA’s in April and prosecutors in the middle of a jury trial. The advantage to being completely ‘off duty’ at the end of your 8 hour shift or workday is that you still have time to do nothing (e.g. read a book, watch tv, gamble until declaring bankruptcy, etc) or participate – even lead! – an activity which benefits the community (e.g. volunteer time as a hospital cart-pusher or firefighter or move lumber for Habitat for Humanity or guide youth as a Big Brother / Sister, or ring a bell seeking donations to the Salvation Army, or lead a Boy Scout or Girl Scout troop, or serve as an election worker or be elected to a school board or stock shelves for a community food-pantry, or take dogs for walks at an animal shelter or coach a youth sports team or sing in a church choir, or find baby formula to be shipped where needed, etc., etc. – literally hundreds of such volunteer, community service opportunities are available.) 

More important for the benefit of the community than a deep-sea fishing hobby, FH joined the Lawnside (PA.) Fire Company at age 16, one of the oldest all Black fire companies in the country, having been founded in 1913. FH was following the volunteer, community service paths of his father and brother, in turn later emulated by FH’ three sons and two grandsons. 

As Fire Chief and President of the fire company, FH both supervised the daily activities of the firehouse, including training new volunteers plus he also represented the fire company to borough officials and the public. FH was in charge at the scene of dozens of incidents, provided updates to the media and interacted often with other fire and emergency service and educational organizations. 

FH was always on the lookout for young volunteers, once telling a news reporter, “When we respond to a fire and see a little kid running down the street to follow our fire truck, we say that kid is going to be a fireman! My brothers and I were all ‘that kid’ – knowing then that we couldn’t wait to become a fireman.” 

Editor’s note – Fire companies, both paid and volunteer, are now glad to enroll both female and male trainees. Some schools within small communities permit student firefighters to immediately exit class when needed to promptly respond to emergency calls.

CHALLENGE – PERSONAL SAFETY

Driving plow trucks through snowstorms and entering burning buildings to search for disabled occupants involve serious risk of personal injury, including death. As FH told friends who worried about him, “We pray for all our company firefighters every day. It’s our daily family prayer.”

CAREER SATISFACTION

After his first several years of paid employment within his county’s highway department, having mastered all the manual operations before rising within department leadership, the County Board of Commissioners named FH their “Employee of the Month” – noting his Big Heart, leadership and wisdom. 

FH was noted for buying tools with his own money to lend them to neighbors, who will always remember him as “supportive, funny and selfless. He smiled a lot and was a great person to look up to.”

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This career story is based on several sources including an obituary written by Gary Miles, published by the Philadelphia Inquirer on July 17, 2024 plus internet research.