Ladislaus Roger Piwowarski receives an award from Police Chief Lee Donohue. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

But he sees the mission for others like him, the 75 remaining reserve officers of the Honolulu Police Department, as unchanged: Service to others.

"It's a great blessing to know somebody loves you and that you love others," the 84-year-old retiree told a roomful of police officers who gathered today to honor him as the longest-serving reserve officer.

Piwowarski, who retired from the police reserves in March, is a Pearl Harbor survivor. He remembers with youthful clarity the terror of returning to his ship, the USS Oglala, to find it already listing and his officers ordering him to safety. He settled down in Hawai'i after the war and enlisted in the reserves in November 1950.

In those days, the officers of the voluntary reserve corps wore khaki uniforms complete with neckties and a seven-point star as a badge, said Officer Eddie Croom, curator of the Honolulu Police Department museum.

And they were expected to pay for those uniforms and weapons, installing a police siren in their own cars, said Maj. Bart Huber of the police juvenile services division where Piwowarski served for more than 28 years.

The father of two helped to found what is now called the Evening Counseling Program for first-time juvenile offenders in 1981.

"He's still helping out as many evenings as possible," Huber said.

Piwowarski was born in New Jersey as the son of a farmer who, he said, made very little money. He enlisted in the Navy, he said, he sent almost half his $20 weekly salary to his parents.

"Today, you give a kid $20, and they say, 'That's all?'" he said.

Piwowarski was photographed in uniform shortly after his enlistment in 1950. Honolulu Police Department

Although satisfied with his civilian career as a claims adjuster for Matson Navigation, Piwowarski still views working with youths as rewarding public service, "because I have something to offer."

And that's all the reason he needed for his career of volunteer work, which has extended to his church as well as the police force.