It was August 1964, and Clement Pruitt, barely three years out of high school, sat in the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel District's human resources office. His interviewer rattled off benefit after benefit for district police officers, then launched into a spiel about retirement.
"I'm thinking to myself, 'This man, I don't know about this man,' " Pruitt recalled. " 'I'm not going to stay here and retire.'... But that's how quick 44 years goes by."
Pruitt, who landed that job as an officer at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel and eventually rose to become the department's chief, is retiring Oct. 1. The 64-year-old went on vacation Aug. 16, and he said he plans to remain on leave until his retirement.
"I just thought it was time to go ahead and retire and start a new chapter in my life," he said Wednesday in a phone interview from his Cape Charles home.
Pruitt said he plans to spend more time with his wife and high school sweetheart, Sue, their two children and five grandchildren.
Fishing, hunting and a little bit of golf also figure into his future, he said.
Pruitt said he always wanted to be a police officer. He delayed pursuing that goal after high school, first spending a year as a minor-league pitcher in the New York Mets system and then running a Cape Charles service station.
In 1964, just four months after the bridge-tunnel opened, Pruitt accepted a job as a district police officer and began patrolling the 17.6-mile span. He worked his way up the chain and became the department's leader in 1995, the same year that construction began on a span parallel to the original.
As chief, Pruitt oversaw a force of 37 officers and earned an annual salary of $99,200.
Jeffrey Holland, the district's executive director, described Pruitt as dedicated to law enforcement and a joy to work with.
"He has been a wonderful ambassador for the district, always will be, and we hate to see him go," Holland said.
For others, including Pruitt's successor, Capt. Edward Spencer, the departure of such a fixture in the office will leave a void.
"It's kind of strange, to be honest with you," said Spencer, who has worked at the district nearly 29 years.
He has assumed Pruitt's duties and will be appointed chief on Oct. 1, Holland said.
Shawn Day, (757) 222-5131, shawn.day@pilotonline.com
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Get it straight
1) Va Beach PD has NEVER worked a cbbt accident. Every bridge officer is trained to work accidents including commercial and fatalities. They have several trained in advanced accident re-construction.
2) The bridge PD are highly trained and very proff. They maintain several DCJS intructors to teach Radar, Firearms, and general topics. Every officer is trained in radar, unlike VBPD!
3) The bridge does not use tax dollars. The tolls pays for maint. on the bridge as well as salaries. Why use our tax dollars for non-virginian's to use it! let the users pay for it!
4) If you to were to let the VSP or the Beach PD to work the bridge accident, by the time they got there, traffic would be so backed up,they would never get on the bridge.
5) The Chief of Police on the bridge oversees toll operations, the wrecker/fire operations, as well as the police. The bridge is a very critical facility. The Chief must constantly update and review policys to protect the facility. What would happen to Hampton Roads commerce if something happened to the bridge?
Sometimed it is best to keep quite and be thought an idiot then to speak and prove it!
Must agree
Must agree with Willy, bet most of you don't even use the CBBT. The HRBT did have its own police force which was disbanded when the tolls were taken off (duties turned over to state & local police), so did the other area tunnels. With backups, overweight trucks and reckless driver, it sounds like a good reason to keep the CBBT police. The city police in VB have more important things to do than work traffic on the CBBT. Kudos to the CBBT officers and happy well deserved retirement to the chief.
37?
Wow 37 officers assigned to the CBBT and ZERO assigned to the HRBT? I bet if there were a full time police force to issue tickets to oversized trucks, and reckless drivers, the HRBT backups would be substantially less. What a WATSE of money... $99,000 a year? Wow is all I can say!
LEER1776
You are correct, my bad. Tolls, not taxes.
However, now would be the best time for them to disband this useless layer of spending and use the VBPD (or even the state police) and save some money and provide a higher quality of public safety.
Waste of tax dollars?... no
The CCBT is paid for and operated by tolls, not taxes. So it would be a waste of toll money.
Waste of tax dollars
There is no reason that the CBBT needs its own police force. This goes back to the nepotistic policies of the early 1960s and is ridiculous in this day and age.
My friends at the VBPD tell me the CBBT officers cannot investigate simple traffic accidents without their help. The VBPD patrols the waters around the tunnel and the air above already.
Divert some of that toll money to the VBPD, let them hire an extra 10 or 15 people and you will see an increase in enforcement, a reduction in expense and a more professional presence.
37 officers?
37 officers to patrol the CBBT? It is only 18 miles long. Cut the force in half (at least) and lower the tolls.
Wow
I did not know that the Bay Bridge and Tunnel could be so taxing on a person. Good Luck Chief!