Things of My Very Own

3 weeks ago

We were informed this morning that our beloved friend and head of security, Lieutenant John Kwak has passed.

There are many things that are uncertain in life but with Lieutenant Kwak, there are things that we always knew. He loved his wife Pat. He loved his family, especially his grandson Nathan, and he had a sense of humor.

Lieutenant Kwak passed at the ripe old age of 28. Those who knew him know that this is a lie. HE didn’t lie about his age. We did, because he had more drive than most people fifty years younger than him.

In his younger years he worked at the Schenectady County Jail. A few of our volunteers who knew him during that time have all told us the same thing: the jail was run like a well-oiled machine when he was there. Minutes before he arrived, "all the craziness would stop". No one dared to step out of line during his shift.

During his seven-years volunteering at Things of My Very Own, Lieutenant Kwak had a number of junior security officers who ranged in age from two to ten-years-old. Most of them were the children of employees and volunteers, some were clients. Being a junior security officer was one of the most sought after jobs at the crisis intervention center. Lieutenant Kwak made each child feel as though they had the most important job at the facility. One day these children will grow up and write “junior security officer” on their resume. If you happen to be gifted with evaluating one of these candidates, know that they were trained by the best, and that our lieutenant paid them well (out of his own pocket).

Lieutenant Kwak took his job seriously. Any time there was a security incident at the center, regardless of the time of day or night, we would contact him before the police. He had a response time of about 20-seconds, an impressive feat considering the amount of stairs in his home. We would then contact all employees. The employees would then race to the premises, sometimes without shoes, and swarm the parking lot to make sure that no one messed with our lieutenant. Later on we would review the security camera footage and talk about how the center was the most secure building in the City of Schenectady.

The Stockade District was a better place because of his presence.

We will miss him playing music over our communication devices first thing in the morning. We will miss how he used to turn our artwork sideways during his rounds. We will miss our Lieutenant, but more than all of these things, we will miss our friend.

We ask those of you who knew Lieutenant Kwak to take the time to write or email your memories of him, and send them to our facility. We would like to share your memories with Lieutenant Kwak's family, and then gift them to his grandson Nathan. Don’t worry, all of his family members have a good sense of humor too.

Things of My Very Own
243-249 Green Street
Schenectady, NY 12305
[email protected] ... See MoreSee Less