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While the challenges continue, so do the good works done by our neighbors, our teachers, our health care providers, our volunteers and so many others. This is their story. Ledyard National Bank is proud to support the 2022 Hometown Heroes, who were nominated by members of the community and selected by editors of the Concord Monitor. Nominate your Hometown Hero Today. |
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| | Hometown Hero: Richard Paulhus is Tilton’s longest serving patrol officer
By JAMIE L. COSTA Monitor staff
Richard Paulhus earned his reputation for action when he began his career at the Franklin Police Department in 1983.
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| A year later he was hired by the Tilton Police Department as a full-time patrol officer, and the action followed him along.
"I get thrown into these hot calls a lot of the time and I just get lucky," Paulhus said. "I’m just the guy that’s in the right place at the right time. It could have been anyone else but it just happened to be me."
One cold February morning in 2021, Paulhus was assisting officers in moving a disabled vehicle off the roadway when he heard a woman screaming. Running toward her vehicle, he assumed it was a couple fighting but when he approached, the woman thrust her eight-month-old baby into his arms.
She was choking.
"I immediately grabbed the baby by the front of her shirt, turned her upside down with my arm between her legs and delivered two palm strikes between her breast bone on her back," Paulhus recalls. "I didn’t want to hit her too hard. I was worried about breaking her, but nothing happened so I said a prayer and I did it two more times really hard and thebaby started crying."
A gummy bear was lodged in her throat.
But to Paulhus, it was just another day at the office, he said.
"Anyone could have gotten that call and done what I did," he continued. "As a tough football player from Bishop Brady and a retired boxer, I would love to say I’m desensitized to this but realistically, just telling you about it right now gets me choked up."
"He doesn’t like to talk much about it, he’s very modest," said Tilton Police Chief Abraham Gilman, who was a sergeant at the time of the incident. "A report was taken, pictures were taken and he very much didn’t want that recognition, but he deserved it."
Paulhus keeps a picture of the mother and daughter duo hanging on the wall in his home, he said. He looks at it every day and looks forward to watching her grow up in the community.
"This is the reason I love doing patrol work," he continued. "When you’re on the road, you tend to be thrown into all of these situations more so than when you’re promoted and you’re behind a desk."
Paulhus earned the title of the town’s longest serving patrol officer before he was promoted to lieutenant, the rank he retired from nine years ago. In his time at the department, he established the first bicycle patrol unit in the early 1980s, served as the first community resource officer and held every position within the department, except for chief and detective.
Unlike many former law enforcement who embark on new careers following retirement, Paulhus was rehired part-time as a Tilton patrol officer. He also works part-time at the Northfield Police Department.
"How often do police officers stay in one spot for 39 years?" he said. "I am a real cop but I call the full-time guys real cops. I’m just their helper, like a carpenters apprentice."
"He does everything," Chief Gilman said. "He does patrol but he does anything we need him to do. He goes to calls, he handles calls, he patrols, he’ll do anything that can be done."
But before Paulhus became a police officer, he didn’t like police, he said. It was after a career test in high school pointed him toward law enforcement that he decided to give it a try, and he loved it.
When he’s not working for the police departments, he substitute teaches for the Winnisquam Regional School District.
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