GORHAM — The reality of life for a police officer is one under pressure, said recently retired Gorham Det. Larry Fearon.

There’s pressure even when off duty.

“I was running on a high idle,” the 61-year-old Fearon said.

He pointed to the loss of his brother-law, Gorham School Resource Officer Wayne “Pooch” Drown, last year from a heart attack at age 64.

“We took a hit when we lost Pooch,” he said.

Fearon stepped down from the Gorham Police Department this month after 39 years, retiring as a detective after first serving as an officer patrolling the whole town.

In his patrol days, he often worked early morning shifts with no backup available in the 51-square-mile town.

“You’re out there by yourself,” Fearon said. “You had to talk people into getting arrested.”

A Sunday morning chase stood out in his memory. He pursued a red mustang from Dingley Spring Road to the intersection of Main Street and Libby Avenue before the driver gave up.

In four decades, Fearon, Gorham’s firearms instructor, never fired his weapon in the line of duty, although “I drew it a number of times,” he said.

Once while working a day shift he was called to assist a state trooper on Route 202 near Waterboro to arrest three felons in a pickup truck.

“We pulled out the shotguns and everything,” Fearon said.

Fearon grew up in Little Falls and attended kindergarten through sixth grade there. He recalled several Little Falls School teachers, including Lillian Hamblen Grant. He graduated from Gorham High School in 1977.

He calls himself a “townie” and hopes the School Department would institute a course about Gorham history. He’s working through the state Department of Education hiring process to serve in a transportation role in town.

His first job as a youngster was pushing a lawn mower at Hillside Cemetery on Huston Road. He also worked for potato grower Claude Daigle.

In 1980, he joined Portland Public Safety and was assigned island duty as a cop, firefighter and rescue worker. He joined the Gorham Police Department in November 1981 and has worked for six chiefs.

Fearon was appointed a detective in 2004 by then-Chief Ronald Shepard, now a town councilor. Shepard said Fearon’s retirement is well deserved.

“He was like a hound dog,” Shepard said. “He got on the scent.”

His detective work in December 2018 led to the arrest of a suspect in a high-profile armed robbery of a bread store.

When he started work as a Gorham officer, Fearon said, there were a little more than 8,000 people. Now, the town is about 18,000.

“We are going to feel our growing pains,” he said. “So many changes.”

In the high-traffic town, Fearon has witnessed the coming of the roundabouts and the red light at Main Street and Libby Avenue as positive changes.

Reflecting on the department, he described Gorham officers as a “good bunch.”

“They are caring,” he said.

Fearon praised the community where he and his wife, who died in 2018, raised their children.

“I’d do it again,” he said.

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