Couple stays more than busy, gives back to community
Mark Pope and Jill Friedrichs of Mount Prospect didn't approach retirement with trepidation. They plunged into it headlong and have been making the most of it ever since.
Pope retired in late 2012 from the Mount Prospect Fire Department, after 38 years as a paramedic and later, a firefighter. Like many firefighters, he also has a trade. He has been a licensed electrician since 1991.
Friedrichs had left her job as an executive administrative assistant with the Fire Safety Alliance in 2010 to care for her dying mother and just never went back to work.
Today the couple could be poster children for Ernie Zelinski's book, “How to Retire Happy, Wild and Free.” Their days are chock-full: part-time electrician work and maintaining a building in Edison Park that his mother owns for Pope and volunteering with numerous local service organizations and charities for Friedrichs, and together, golf, growing vegetables, enjoying concerts, cheering on the Blackhawks and travel — to the home in Burlington, Wisconsin, that Friedrichs and her siblings inherited and to places they have not yet seen — like Australia.
“Being a fireman is a young man's job,” Pope explained. “It was really starting to grind on my body, so I knew that I was done. And I wasn't worried about it. I figured that I would continue with my electrical work which people hear about through word-of-mouth and I would find other things to do.”
Now he wonders how he ever had time to work. And Pope admitted that he is a restless person who has a hard time relaxing and considers a day wasted if he hasn't accomplished anything. And yet he is still not bored in retirement.
“Jill is the one who joins all of these committees and I just pitch in and help,” he explained.
“Mark is the man in every group who shows up with his van, his two-wheeler and his muscle and helps set up and tear down for every event,” Friedrichs said.
“I have a good time working with everyone and like the feeling of getting things done,” Pope added.
The pair jointly volunteers with the Mount Prospect Lions Club, the Mount Prospect Historical Society, the Mount Prospect Chapter of the Infant Welfare Society, the Survive Alive Foundation of the Chicago Fire Department and the Mount Prospect Special Events Commission.
No couple is better known around town and seen at more events.
For instance, Friedrichs has run the Mount Prospect Fourth of July parade for the Village since 1995. She has also been a member of the Village's Special Events Commission since it began in 1993 and annually helps organize and run the Celestial Celebration dinner dance. Pope supports her efforts by doing everything from helping with parade unit lineup to setting up for the dinner dance each February.
Through the Mount Prospect Lions Club, the couple works on a variety of projects including the annual Fourth of July Festival to the Candy Day solicitation to the annual Corned Beef and Cabbage dinner. Pope spent much of this year's summer festival in the beer booth, serving up peanuts to those who wanted to enjoy them with their liquid refreshments.
Friedrichs has been active in the Infant Welfare Society since she started driving her ailing mother to the meetings. She continues to actively work on their annual silent auction/raffle/luncheon fundraiser each November and Pope helps where needed.
She has also been a member of the Survive Alive Foundation for a decade or more. This is the public education arm of the Chicago Fire Department and its volunteer board raises funds to pay for coloring books and other classroom giveaways to assist in fire safety education.
Her most recent cause is the Mount Prospect Historical Society. She joined the board in 2012 as a force to be reckoned with and now helps with the annual Holiday Housewalk, runs the Silent Movie Night and biennial Purse Auction and most recently has co-chaired the Central School Restoration Fundraising Drive. Pope is by her side through all of those activities.
“I just love giving back to the community and almost never turn down an opportunity to volunteer. But we have been paid back because through those activities, particularly through the Lions Club, Mark and I have met so many people with whom we have become socially active. It has been great,” she said.
In addition to all of that volunteering, Friedrichs plays golf in a league once a week, as does her husband, and they both enjoy spending time at their vacation home in Wisconsin, as well as making it to numerous rock concerts and professional sports games.
“When Mark was a fireman, he wasn't home much, so I wasn't sure how things would go once he was retired. I would joke that I would have to go out and get another volunteer job once he was home all the time. But once we got in a set pattern, it was easy and it wasn't a long adjustment,” she said.