For nearly two decades as a deputy, then sergeant and finally captain in the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office, Jesse Steindler was constantly harassed by a particular emotion.
“For the past 18 years, I’ve woken up or went to bed worried,†Steindler said last week in an interview at his home in Woody Creek. “I was worried that MPs would be hurt or how things were the day before or how things would be (that day).”
But since he returned his uniform, badge and weapon last week – Steindler doesn’t like the word ‘retirement’ – things have changed.
“It’s an emotion I haven’t felt,†he said with a smile. “It’s amazing. I’m a lot less stressed.
Still, that doesn’t mean the 64-year-old won’t miss his old job.
“I loved it,†Steindler said. “I was paid to be part of a special group of people… to alleviate the problems across the county. It gave me great pleasure. “
Steindler’s path to a career in law enforcement, however, was not exactly preestablished.
He was born in New York City but moved to his mother’s native Italy when he was only two or three months old. He spent his formative years with his parents in Europe and went to his first boarding school on the continent at the age of 9.
After a few years of boarding school in England and Switzerland, he returned to the United States, where his father enrolled him in his alma mater, Choate Rosemary Hall, a boarding school in Connecticut. But after years of European-style corporal punishment for offenders like him, Steindler said he found the American system, where beating was not allowed, “like a summer camp.”
“When I realized I wouldn’t be beaten if I broke the rules, it was a game changer for me,†said Steindler. “I said, ‘If you don’t hit me, I won’t.’ I am completely out of the deep end.
So, at the end of his freshman year – his first in the United States – he was quickly kicked out of Choate. Although he was eventually allowed to return because his father was an alum and because his years in Europe had turned him into a good soccer player, it didn’t last.
The following year, when he was 15, he ran away from school with a friend who was a year older and hitchhiked across the country to Aspen.
“My friend had gone to Aspen to ski and he said it was the best ski in the world,†Steindler said. “That’s why we came here. I had heard of Colorado and wanted to ski and be a cowboy.
“I was 15 and that’s what I did.
Life on the loose, however, did not last long. Steindler was in a car accident and the police identified him as a runaway and informed his parents. His father wanted him to come back to school in Connecticut, but instead he applied for and received a scholarship to Rocky Mountain School in Carbondale, and his father reluctantly allowed him to stay.
Steindler camped and lived in a lean-to up to Avalanche Creek during those years as an RMS student and at one point forged his birth certificate and attempted to enlist in the military at 16, which was thwarted by an uncle who lived in Denver. .
“MPs got involved because they were lying to the federal government,” Steindler said. “I was such a scrapper. I was still fighting.
However, he graduated from RMS, then married later, bought a ranch in British Columbia, Canada for a few years, then returned to the Roaring Fork Valley, now with two daughters and twin sons. .
At that time, in 1990, George Stranahan hired him to run his cattle operation at the Flying Dog Ranch in Woody Creek. Steindler’s mother was from a farm in northern Italy, his father had a penchant for farming, and Steindler discovered that he too loved horses and cattle and country life.
He worked for the venerable Stranahan – who died in May at the age of 89 – until 1999, when Stranahan decided to shut down his cattle farm.
“(Former Pitkin County Sheriff) Bob Braudis had courted me for several years (to be a deputy),†Steindler said. “So I called Bob and said, ‘What should I do? And he said, ‘Go to the academy.’ “
And so began his career in law enforcement.
Pitkin County Sheriff Joe DiSalvo said Braudis and the community of Woody Creek knew Steindler from his work at the Stranahan ranch and knew he was a loyal and hardworking person.
“Bob pursued him very hard to work for us for many years,†said DiSalvo, who has worked in the sheriff’s office for over 30 years. “Eventually, after years of chasing him, he gave in. I think it was one of the best shots we’ve ever made.”
Eighteen years later, Steindler decided he would retire in July at the age of 65. But he had important vacation days ahead, so he asked to take a lot of his time in his senior year, he said. While the sheriff’s office doesn’t like letting employees go for long periods of time, DiSalvo agreed to the request and Steindler took a month off to help his aging mother.
This gave him time to think it over, and he came to the conclusion that taking a long vacation while still employed in Pitkin County was not fair to his colleagues, who should make up for his absences.
“I didn’t want to be seen as a guy who treated him,†Steindler said. ” I have never done that. It is always best to leave before you pass your welcome.
Pitkin County Deputy Sheriff Alex Burchetta said he would miss Steindler “extremely”.
“I think he’s a fantastic individual,†he said. “He embodies everything the former sheriff and the current sheriff want in a peace officer.”
Burchetta worked with Steindler for the 14 years Burchetta spent in the sheriff’s office and said he found Steindler’s wise advice invaluable over the years.
“He approaches things like a father,†he said. “He was always the voice of reason, a mentor, someone I could always turn to with questions or if I needed advice. I look forward to calling him every week for his advice.
DiSalvo echoed those sentiments.
“He was incredibly loyal to the sheriff’s office and to the people of Pitkin County,†he said. “If anyone needed help, Jesse would get up and say, ‘Put me in’, and he did that until his last day.
“I really, really love and admire him.”
Steindler said he’s not sure exactly what’s next and that he plans to spend time with his wife, Jill, four children and stepson, although he’s not yet finished working. to make a living.
“I’m not a rich man,†Steindler said. “I see myself as an unemployed 64-year-old. When I know I’m doing someone good, and if I can combine that with some money, I’ll be happy.
So, in case the message is not clear, Jesse Steindler is not “retired”.
“I’ve banned the word ‘retirement’ here,†he says. “I resigned from the sheriff’s office.
