Former police chief, sergeant dies
SOAP LAKE - Inside Chris Rosa's house, a pile of photographs, certificates, plaques and newspaper clippings document his father's life.
There's a collection documenting 90-year-old Jimmy Rosa's time as a Grant County sheriff's deputy, as Soap Lake's police chief, as Quincy's police chief, as Big Bend Community College's head of security, and in three branches of the US Armed Forces.
Jimmy Rosa died in his sleep at McKay Health Care and Rehabilitation Center in Soap Lake recently.
"He started out as three years in the Army, which he was underage, but they let him stay anyway. He went from there into the Marine Corps," Chris Rosa said. "In 22 months, he was in 12 major battles."
As a member of the Marines, he was 21 during the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Jimmy Rosa's team was the first on the beach during the Battle of Guadalcanal.
"He was lost behind enemy lines for 18 days, " Chris Rosa said. "He boxed in the Marine Corps and was champion three times in his weight class. He was on the armed forces pistol team in Japan."
In Japan, Jimmy Rosa sparred with the Imperial Guard and said he'd never been beaten so quickly, Chris Rosa.
"He did nine years in the Marines, was discharged and joined the Air Force," Chris Rosa said. "He didn't join the Navy because he said he'd look weird in bell bottoms and a Dixie cup."
While he was in the Air Force, he was stationed in England, Germany, Japan, Hawaii and Alaska, Chris Rosa said.
"He was like the perfect kind of sergeant," Chris Rosa said about calls he received from people who knew his father. "He was very stern, but not like one of these (drill instructors) you see from the Marine Corps chewing everyone out."
Chris Rosa said once they told his father's squadron they needed to get crew cuts and he had wavy hair. "He said, 'They got to. I got to,'" he said. "He had his hair cut off. My grandmother almost killed him, but he went into the crew cut and he never did get rid of it until he finally retired from police work."
He finished his service in the military at Larson Air Force Base in Moses Lakes after transferring from Montana. He retired from military service as a master sergeant. He spent 24 years in the military.
"He came out and the day after he retired, went to work as a Grant County deputy sheriff," Chris Rosa said. "He never even took a vacation."
He went from the deputy position to become Quincy's police chief. When he left Quincy, he became Soap Lake's police chief. He spent 24 years in law enforcement.
"He retired and they called him back," Chris Rosa said. "So he was the police chief of Soap Lake twice."
Chris Rosa also heard from some Soap Lake residents that they loved his father as the police chief.
"He never pulled (his gun.) He only had to do it once in a drug raid and somebody hit him across the back with a pipe," he said. "He didn't figure (he should.) He says, 'I can take care of them by hand. If they started shooting at him then it would be a different story."
After leaving law enforcement, he taught senior citizens new laws and how to drive better in a program called "55 Alive."
"He loved (Harley-Davidson motorcycles) ... He used to ride them in the military," Chris Rosa's wife Shirley Rosa said. "He was always on the go. He was not one that you could tie down."
Jimmy Rosa was an Indiana-born Italian, Chris Rosa said, adding his father, at one time, drove a horse-drawn milk wagon.
"He could not stop doing things. It was like it came naturally to him to help," Chris Rosa said. "In the military he didn't want to be an officer, but everybody that I've ever met working with him on the police department ... said he was the best guy they ever met in their life."
Jimmy Rosa helped anyone he could, Chris Rosa said.
"He helped kids out and put them into the service," he said. "He helped kids learn how to be police officers and as he got older, his back started going out so he couldn't play golf any more, because he would play golf 300 days a year."
Jimmy Rosa also took his wheelchair into parades during the Fourth of July, and while he was in the nursing home, he ran bingo and sing-a-longs.
"He could sing all of these old songs," Chris Rosa said.
A memorial for Jimmy Rosa is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on March 19 at the Moose Lodge in Moses Lake, located at 417 West Broadway Ave.