Captain J.C. Pace wore many hats throughout his 93 years of life, from baseball player, to newspaper reporter, to Army soldier. But it was the hat he never saw himself wearing that he put on every day for 42 years, as a trooper with the South Carolina Highway Patrol.

Service to others — much like being a state trooper — was not something the late Captain Pace could turn on and off. It was always on, from serving his country in the Army during World War II, to serving his state as a state trooper for more than 40 years, to serving law enforcement through volunteer work in his retirement.

“I’ve always been a nut about jumping in and trying to do something for the community and people,” he said in a 1999 profile in The Times & Democrat.

Born in 1916 in Sumter County, Pace first worked as a bookkeeper for his father’s business, Orangeburg Ice and Fuel Company. However, he found his passion, and what he thought would be a career, in athletics, whether playing in a variety of sports, promoting sporting events, or writing about them for his hometown newspaper. It was while he was working at a bowling alley that he found a different career.

Pace’s friendship with four troopers who frequented the bowling alley led to him riding along with them on patrol and, eventually, applying to be a trooper in 1940. Becoming a law enforcement officer had never been a thought of Pace’s; at the time he applied for the patrol he also had fielded job offers from the Piedmont League in Asheville and even Connie Mack, longtime manager of the Philadelphia Athletics baseball team.

“He and I were really close,” said Pace’s nephew, Charles Maier. “When I was growing up and playing sports, he would always come out to practices if he could.”

In the end, Pace chose to wear the uniform of a state trooper and accepted an assignment in Laurens County. However, his new career of service was put on hold in 1942, when the federal government called on him to serve with the U.S. Army during World War II. During his time with the Army, Pace was a military police officer and special investigator, achieving the rank of Master Sergeant before being honorably discharged and returning home.

After returning from the war, Pace picked up where he left off patrolling the roadways of Laurens County. Over the next several years, he ascended the ranks of the Highway Patrol, landing supervisory positions in Aiken and Anderson counties before being promoted to First Sergeant in his home county of Orangeburg in 1958. Pace earned promotions to Lieutenant in 1966, and then to Captain of District 7 in 1973. Of course, one doesn’t make it that far in the Highway Patrol without being something of a disciplinarian.

“He expected everybody to run their job in a professional manner and to be fair with everybody. He expected his people to do the right thing,” said Phil Gulley, who joined the patrol in 1973 and was assigned to District 7 under Pace. “We did not always agree on things, but he was the captain, and that’s how it is.”

In illustrating his uncle’s integrity, Maier recalled being pulled over as a teenage driver by one of Pace’s troopers.

“Like a lot of kids, I drove like a bat out of hell everywhere I went,” he said. Having gotten out of a ticket once by dropping his uncle’s name, he again tried it.

“You wouldn’t happen to know my uncle, J.C. Pace, would you?” he asked the trooper, who responded: “Sure do. He’s my captain. Wouldn’t he be embarrassed to know you’re getting this ticket?”

When telling his uncle about it later, Pace told Maier, “Good. He did what he was supposed to do.”

Even toward the end of his time as a state trooper, Pace showed no signs of slowing down in his service to others. He supported and advocated for law enforcement as president of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Officers Association. During his time with SCLEOA, he conceived the idea for the South Carolina Law Enforcement Officers Association Student Scholarship Fund and also served as an associate chaplain. He volunteered for a number of other organizations, from the South Carolina Troopers Association and the Kiwanis Club of Orangeburg, to the Elks Lodge and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

In 1987, Governor Richard Riley awarded Pace the Order of the Palmetto, the highest honor that can be bestowed upon a civilian in South Carolina. Maier still has the plaque his uncle received with the award.

In a poetic turn, after Pace retired from the Highway Patrol, he returned to the craft that led him into law enforcement: Writing for The Times & Democrat. “A deputy’s tour of duty usually covers many working activities and long hours and not just ice cream or coffee breaks as some uninformed citizens think,” he wrote in a column after riding along with an Orangeburg County sheriff’s deputy. “Some people question as to whether there is much stress in law enforcement duties. Pity their lack of knowledge.”

Pace’s life, while steeped in accomplishments and service to others, was not without personal tragedy. Early on in their marriage, he and his wife lost twin sons and a baby daughter. Tragedy struck again in 2006, when their only remaining child, Andrey “Dree” Pace, died in 2006 after a battle with cancer. She was 46.

“It was hard on him,” Gulley said of Dree’s passing. Just over three years after his daughter’s death, Pace passed away at the age of 93. Gulley was a pallbearer at the memorial service for his former supervisor and friend, who was laid to rest with full military honors.

Pace’s strong Christian faith kept him grounded in the face of so much tragedy.

“He was strong through it all,” Maier said. “I’m a very religious person, but I couldn’t touch his faith.”

At Wednesday’s Meritorious Service Induction Ceremony, Pace’s name was permanently enshrined into the South Carolina Law Enforcement Officers Hall of Fame. Maier accepted the award on his uncle’s behalf.

“He would have said, ‘Give it to somebody else,’” Maier said. “He would not have wanted that attention. He would have rather showered that attention on somebody else. It would have meant the world to him, as it does to us. But he wasn’t one to want all the limelight.”

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