Area Personality: Brian Witherite

Brian Witherite has a responsibility. And he believes he owes it to our children and grandchildren to take this responsibility seriously.

 

Witherite, 43, is a wildlife conservation officer for the Pennsylvania Game Commission. He describes his career mission as a way to help "preserve and protect natural resources for future generations of the commonwealth . . . trying to make a difference so what we have here today we have in the future."

 

But taking his job seriously doesn't stop Witherite from enjoying it.

 

"The outdoors is my office," he said. "It's wonderful. If you're having a bad day what better therapy than being on a hilltop overlooking something like Laurel Hill Creek?"

 

Witherite's career path didn't begin in the great outdoors. After earning his diploma at Penns Valley Area School District in Central, he attended the Indiana University of Pennsylvania and enrolled in the police academy.

 

"I either wanted to be a trooper or a conservation enforcement officer," he said. "I eventually worked in retail loss prevention as a detective out in Pittsburgh."

 

Witherite spent three years at this job, sniffing out thieves and embezzlers. He said he learned that they come from all walks of life and income brackets.

 

"It was interesting," he said. "You wouldn't expect (these people) to steal from the companies they worked for."

 

His next gig was at Adelphoi Village, a private nonprofit treatment-based community for juveniles. He provided security there before being promoted to the foster care division. In all, he spent five years at Adelphoi.

 

"It was rewarding," he said. "You dealt with infants . . . all the way up to the adult age."