Pete Hart: A lifetime of working (and living) with people
Docked at the Charleston Navy Yard, the USS Constitution is the oldest commissioned warship in the world. At one point in his life, Pete Hart could have told you everything about “Old Ironsides,” as it is affectionately called.
Pete grew up in a blue collar part of Newton. He worked two summers at the boathouse at Norumbega Park. Once, he checked coats for the folk group Peter, Paul and Mary at the park’s Totem Pole Ballroom. He graduated from Newton High School, which was then the only high school in town, joined the Navy, and was stationed in Charlestown on Old Ironsides.
Working on the warship as an 18-year-old was a ball. The ship is a museum, and new recruits are required to prove they can give a detailed tour to visitors before they are allowed the liberty of leaving the ship. Every seven weeks, Pete had to stay on the ship for a full weekend, which he did for nearly four years. Between living on the boat and giving tours to thousands of visitors, Pete knew everything there was to know.
Pete is an active person who loves working with people. When he got out of the Navy, he decided to join a few friends at the Newton Police Department. Pete loved being a police officer. He worked all across the department, from walking a beat to working the detective bureau. He dealt with life and death and everything in between.
On December 18, 1969, Pete and a few other officers were around the corner when three young kids fell through the ice at Hammond Pond. The middle sister fell in first, and her brother fell in trying to save her while their youngest sister made it off the ice safely. The lightest of the officers on the scene, Pete went out on the ice after the kids. He saved the little girl, and tragically the team could not rescue her brother. Pete fell into the icy water in the process. By the time he made it to the hospital, Pete’s body temperature was down to 86 degrees.
Many people would remember the story as the day they saved a life. Pete remembers it as the day his own life was saved.
Pete worked at the police department for 23 years before he retired on disability from injuries he received in the line of duty, injuries that have required seven knee surgeries. In retirement, he has worked jobs on and off, survived two bouts of cancer, lived in Florida for a few years, and done a lot of bike riding. When he got homesick, he returned home to Massachusetts. He is extremely proud of his daughter, who lives nearby, and his two grandsons are, as he puts it, the apples of his eye.
Any day of the week, you can find Pete in the lobby of the brand-new Leland House, reading the newspaper and greeting everyone who walks by. He used to live in an apartment that he describes as “just an apartment.” Leland House, according to Pete, is not only beautiful — it’s a lifestyle.
