Decades of Dedicated Service

Watching the Aberdeen Recreation and Cultural Center flourish in the former Central High School complex is one of many changes Gene Morsching has witnessed in the 37 years he’s been the city’s recreation superintendent.

Originally from Huron, Morsching came to Aberdeen in 1987 after having previously worked in Redfield.

Recreation Superintendent Gene Morsching visits with a group of people at Dome Days at the Aberdeen Dome in February.

In moving to Aberdeen, Morsching joined three classmates from South Dakota State University, all of whom majored in parks and recreation. They were Doug Johnson, former Parks, Recreation & Forestry Department director; Mark Hoven, who now has that job; and Kathie Allstot, who used to manage Riverside Cemetery.

In the late 1980s, he said, the ARCC was in its infancy and operating out of the former Monroe Middle School building, the remainder of which is now the Washington Street Gym.

While retirement will offer the opportunity to slow down and spend more time with family, Morsching said he’ll still be around and will remain active with the Aberdeen Community Concert Association.

Not convinced it was the career for him, Jay Tobin filled out an application to be a patrol officer with the Aberdeen Police Department 36 years ago.

He finished his career as the longest-serving officer in the history of the department.

In spite of his uncertainty, Tobin rose through the ranks, spent time as a patrol officer on motorcycle and taught Drug Abuse Resistance Education to youth in 1990, shortly after the DARE program launched.

Jay Tobin

He marks his time at the department by the leadership changes he’s witnessed. He’s served under four police chiefs, four mayors, four city managers and has seen three forms of city government.

Keith Sharisky closed out his career with Aberdeen Fire & Rescue doing what he enjoyed most — training fellow firefighters.

Sharisky said he worked more than 30 years in emergency services. And he will return to work at Brown County Communications after the required three-month post-retirement hiatus.

While Sharisky finished his career as director of training in Aberdeen, he said his career started as a 911 dispatcher for two counties in Colorado in 1994. Then, when he heard the local fire department was looking for firefighters and emergency medical technicians, he said he volunteered as a firefighter and was soon given the opportunity to train as an EMT.

From there, he continued his training and earned advanced certification as an EMT, then as a paramedic through a state-sponsored program that required him to stay on the job for a year.

Sharisky said that’s about the time his wife, Lorna, came home from her job as a special education teacher and told him she wasn’t going to be at her job much longer. Soon after, she had a job in Chamberlain and he was working for what was then MidDakota Hospital and is now a Sanford hospital.

Keith Sharisky ended his career with Aberdeen Fire & Rescue doing what he enjoys most – training fellow firefighters.

His duties eventually brought him to Aberdeen for a class about hazardous materials.He joined Aberdeen Fire & Rescue in September 1998.

Sharisky’s career in Aberdeen spanned two chapters with a three-month period in between. He admits he wasn’t happy his first eight years, which prompted him to briefly pursue a job with a fire department in Wyoming before discovering it wasn’t what he expected.

His family hadn’t moved, he said, so Sharisky returned to Aberdeen to see about getting his job back, and he was re-hired as field training officer — the gig he’d had for the previous three years. In that position, he made sure new hires had the training they needed before going on shift.

Sharisky continued in that role for five or six years before he reached the rank of lieutenant — on the 12th time he sought the position. From there, he was promoted to director of training.

Prior to his retirement, Lt. Nathan Sturgeon was named training section chief. //