DANVERS — The morning sun streaming through the woods at Hogan Regional Center seemed somehow appropriate last Wednesday morning for the dedication of a plaque to the memory of a dedicated and lifelong employee of the facility.
More than 50 fellow employees, friends and family members of the late James “Jimmy” Turcotte stood around the plaque, remembering him “for his 45 years of service helping to improve the lives of the residents and families at the Hogan Regional Center.”
Turcotte started working directly with patients in the adolescent unit at age 17 and retired in 2020 at 61. During that period, he earned his GED and wore many different hats. He earned his fireman’s license as well as the engineering licenses necessary to supervise the operation of the power plant that heated the center and kept the power on, Turcotte’s daughter, Bridget Gotts, said.
Leading up to that, the previous supervisor took Turcotte under his wing and taught him everything he could. Turcotte took this lesson to heart and went on to mentor as many people as he could at the plant in the same way that he had been helped.
Though work in the power plant took him away from direct care, Turcotte found many ways to advocate for the betterment of the residents’ lives.
He knew them by name and face, decades after having worked with them. If he heard they needed something, he did his best to help them get it, and if someone wasn’t being treated right, he fought to fix it. He always looked out for people who couldn’t advocate for themselves, Gotts said.
When the plant closed, Turcotte continued working as a maintenance foreman until retiring in 2021.
Two years later, in 2023, he died tragically in a motorcycle crash.
Turcotte was known and loved throughout the facility. No matter who you mentioned him to, their first words were some version of, “Oh, Jimmy — What a great guy he was!” or “He’d do anything for you,” “What a sweet guy!”
They said he had an intimate knowledge of virtually every operating system in the plant, from its electrical wiring to its plumbing to its ancient steam plant and heating system, and he would ungrudgingly respond at any hour of the day or night should a serious issue develop, Gotts said.
But perhaps Turcotte’s real love was in maintaining a trail through the extensive woods by the facility for the residents to use for walking and for hayrides during the fall, even continuing to maintain the trail and the hayride tractor after he retired.
So it was particularly in keeping for his Hogan Regional associates, friends and family members to choose that particular spot, at the beginning and at the end of “Turk’s Trail,” to erect a plaque and a sign honoring his life and his memory.