PA Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 38

Lester Coslic is the go-to man when they want the job done

By MADOLIN EDWARDS / Daily American Staff Writer

Monday, August 4, 2008

BERLIN - “Once Lester Coslic starts something, he stays with it 100 percent,” said Tom Calvert, of Berlin. “He’s at it whole-hearted and it will get done. He’s the kind of individual you want if you want the job done.”

Coslic is well-known throughout the Berlin community, not just as a retired state police trooper and mayor, but also as a supporter of the Boy Scouts, church, Lions Club, Berlin Food Pantry and a variety of other groups.

Coslic, the son of John and Gladys Coslic, is from a farm in Brothersvalley Township. He has two brothers, Ernest and Terry. He graduated as salutatorian from Shanksville high school where he was involved in the FFA.

Coslic then went into the Army where he served three years in the military police. He was stationed at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. Then he spent 16 months in Korea, patrolling in Seoul right after the war.

“I learned there, it was nice to be an American,” he said. “I appreciated what it was like to be an American.”

After leaving the Army, Coslic worked for a coal strip mine company while applying for the Pennsylvania State Police Academy. He was accepted in 1958 and went to the police academy in Hershey. Coslic said at that time, the state police troopers had to be single for two years and live in the barracks.

“It was different requirements to be a state trooper,” he said. “You had to have 21 of your own teeth, 20-20 vision, be between 5 feet 8 inches and 6 feet 2 inches and the right weight.”

While he waited to be accepted at the academy, he worked on a family farm where SCI-Somerset is now.

“This young girl would bring me water,” Coslic said of the woman he now calls his wife, Laverne (Suder).

“And ice cream,” she added. “That was in 1958 and we were married in 1960.”

“I had to write a letter to the Pennsylvania State Police that said I wanted to get married. They checked her background,” Coslic said.

His first assignment was Newville on the turnpike. He was then transferred to Everett, serving seven years on the turnpike detail. Then he went to Greensburg for a day or two before being assigned to a drivers exam point in Pittsburgh.

“They weren’t the drivers we had around here,” Coslic said, laughing. “They averaged three accidents a day on a closed course!”

Coslic was assigned to Somerset in 1966, where he worked traffic, desk and was a criminal investigator.

“I liked traffic. The action was there,” he said. “It was nothing to get called out at any and all times.”

Crimes he investigated included murders, rapes and large burglaries. He was featured in a police magazine for his work.

“It was your job. You do the best you could. You try to get it solved,” he said about investigating such crimes. “And it’s not like the crime shows that get one case a day and solve it in a half hour. Sometimes I worked 50 cases at one time.”

Coslic said often the cases were tied together and could be solved together.

“It was fun. I enjoyed it,” he said. “You never knew what would happen next.”

He retired in 1987 after 28 1/2 years.

“I didn’t miss the paperwork, but I missed the guys,” he admitted.

Lester and Laverne have two children: Daniel, who lives in Washington, and Susan, Berlin. They have three grandsons and a stepgrandson.

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