When longtime volunteer firefighter and Army veteran Chris Feder looks over his three-decade-plus resume, he says the best job he ever had was serving as a public safety officer for the now-closed Cabrini University.

This month, the 50-year-old started a new job that has been a lifelong dream and is rooted in that Cabrini experience: He became a Temple University police officer.

Feder, a Montgomery County native who currently lives in Haverford Township, was the oldest cadet in his Temple University Municipal Police Academy class that graduated Friday and served as one of three class leaders.

He took what he estimates was a $25,000 pay cut from his job as director of rescue services for a private company to join Temple at a time when the university, like many police departments around the country, has struggled to recruit enough officers.

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“It’s been my life dream to become a police officer,” Feder said last week. “Things have come to me late in life, and I’ve always seen myself vicariously through Rocky.”

As Chris’ wife, Anna, a human resources manager, tells it, “He’s always embraced unconventionality and he’s spent his life making his own way, against the odds.”

He dropped out of high school and got his GED at 24. He joined the Army at 30 and spent a year in Afghanistan, and now two decades later, he’s starting a career in law enforcement.

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Feder is one of four new Temple officers in the latest graduating class.

“They all bring great experience, education and passion for wanting to be at Temple,” said Jennifer Griffin, Temple’s vice president for public safety. “I think they will be great teammates to our existing officers and the entire public safety team.”

Before entering the seven-month academy, Feder, like other cadets, went through physical and written exams, psychological and medical testing, and interviews.

Feder wasn’t worried about meeting the physical demands, but rather the possibility of getting hurt during training. Having been away from school for a while, he also pondered the difficulty of the academics, which includes 26 exams. Cadets must maintain an 80% GPA.

To focus, he gave up his firefighting role and other positions with the exception of his military obligations. He continues as a staff sergeant for the Pennsylvania Air National Guard.

“Right now, I’m at an 87% GPA,” he said.

A longtime dream of becoming an officer

As a boy, Feder said he got into some trouble, was diagnosed with ADHD and landed at the former Wordsworth Academy for children experiencing emotional, behavioral, and academic challenges. (Wordsworth closed in 2016 after extensive allegations of abuse there.)

He dropped out before getting his high school diploma.

“I was on this crusade to prove to the world that I could do something without it,” he said. “Boy, was I wrong.”

He got his GED after his sister “bribed” him with a trip to Europe around Y2K, he said.

At 19, he became a volunteer firefighter.

“I wanted to run into burning buildings,” he said. “I wanted to break windows. I wanted to be in the fire truck going fast through traffic. Let’s face it, chicks dig it.”

But through those years of service, he matured, became a state fire instructor, began writing articles for industry magazines, and joined the Montgomery County Hazardous Materials team.

“You start to learn that there’s more important things in the world than yourself,” he said. “I became appreciative of civic duty, community service.”

In his early 20s, he took that job at Cabrini, where he worked for three years, seven months, and 21 days. He said he thoroughly enjoyed interacting with the students and loved his colleagues there.

“Badge number 15,” he said, “which I still play when I do roulette.”

He took tests in the late 1990s to become a municipal officer, but competition was keen then, he said, and after a while, “it became a bridge too far.”

He joined the Army in 2005.

His other jobs include working as a federal prison officer and at Med-Tex Services Inc., a private company that specializes in rescue and hazardous material training, where he was most recently director of rescue services. He left that job in April just before he went into the police academy.

He was prompted after seeing an ad for a municipal police officer position in Pennsylvania and noticed there was no age restriction. Recalling the fondness he had for his Cabrini job, he saw Temple was looking. He liked that Temple had a vice president for public safety and had just undergone an intensive safety audit by former Philadelphia Police Chief Charles Ramsey’s company. (The audit came after a student was shot to death outside his residence just off Temple’s campus in 2021.)

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The school was systematically implementing the changes, which impressed Feder.

“That’s something I want to be a part of,” he said.

His wife supported him.

“Chris is embracing the challenge — and his underdog spirit is living proof that it’s never too late to pursue your dreams,” she said in an email.

She noted they got married in 2021 on the top of a 40-foot-tower in Phoenix, where Feder had been preparing for a rescue competition, with their daughter Harper, now 8, standing by in helmet and harness.

Commitment to the community

Feder said he wasn’t deterred by movements to defund police departments following the 2020 murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. He said it’s important to create positive experiences between law enforcement and young people.

“I look at your badge as it isn’t yours to keep. It’s on loan from the community you serve,” he said. “And every day you work, you pay that loan back with interest in the form of integrity, professionalism, empathy, dedication, commitment.”

On Thursday, the cadets were preparing for graduation on Temple’s Ambler campus.

Jeffrey Nowak, director of the police academy, said Feder emerged as the natural class leader, especially with his prior safety and military experience. He was named class lieutenant.

“Chris has a maturity about him, which is very attractive,” Nowak said.

Nowak introduced Feder and two other cadets, who served as class sergeants, to the newest group of recruits.

“This is a little surreal,” Feder said, standing before the class. “You’ll be here one day, too. Trust me.”