Massachusetts State Police show what Christmas is all about, come to aid of former law enforcement officer

BOSTON – According to Massachusetts State Police, during more than three decades as a law enforcement officer, Rich White helped countless people, members of the public and fellow State Troopers alike.

So, when he needed some help himself, his brother Troopers from the State Police Commissioned Officers Association lined up and said: We’re here.

Rich retired from the Massachusetts State Police in 2018 as a Sergeant. That day culminated a 35-year career that began with the Milton Police Department and continued first with the old Metropolitan District Commission Police, and then with the State Police when the Met Police was merged into the MSP in 1992.

MSP stated that among Rich’s assignments, he was stationed at the Milton and Millbury Barracks as well as at the Marine Section as a boat captain. Rich was also a member of the Department’s Honor Guard.

For most of his career, though, Rich was an EMT and highly accomplished member of the State Police Dive Team. He participated in many challenging rescues and recoveries, including the tragic missions to recover the body of 10-year-old murder victim Jeffrey Curley from a tributary of the Piscataqua River in Maine in 1997 and those of John F. Kennedy Jr. and his wife and her sister after their plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in 1999.

Rich loved to scuba dive and was a well-liked instructor on the Dive Team, serving as a mentor to many younger Troopers when they came onto the team. Rich often spoke of his retirement dream of opening a dive shop in a warmer climate, MSP said.

But plans don’t always work out. Two months after his retirement, at age 58, Rich White was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Over the last few years his condition has progressed. He became unable to walk up and down stairs and needed to be carried, which has been difficult for him and his family and has resulted in him being mostly confined in his house. To be able to get out of the house again with any regularity, he needed a wheelchair ramp. But for complex reasons, the ramp cost wasn’t covered by his health insurance.

That’s when the Massachusetts State Police Commissioned Officers Association stepped forward. It didn’t matter that as a Trooper and then a Sergeant, Rich was never a commissioned MSP officer. All that mattered is a brother Trooper needed help. The group organized a GoFundMe page with the goal of raising $7,500 to get the ramp and a new wheelchair-accessible door installed.

To date, they have raised more than $27,500.

The ramp and door are now in place, and the balance of the money raised is going to Rich’s family to help with his care.

Alzheimer’s has stripped Rich of so much, but through the loving care and support of a devoted family, he remains able to live at home.

According to MSP, last week, members of the Commissioned Officers Association and the Dive Team visited their fellow Trooper, their friend and mentor, their brother who will always be part of the same family as them, that of the Massachusetts State Police.

They spread some holiday cheer, recounted a few memories, shared some laughs. There were lots of smiles and hugs and maybe a few tears too. It was all good.

In this week, when we try to honor the true meaning of Christmas and strive to live up to the spirit of giving, they spent a little while celebrating Richie White, the man who has given so much to all of them.