Most people look forward to retiring and relaxing.

Rick Clemson worked for PPL for 40 years and retired at age 60.

“I ended up at the nuclear plant in Berwick,” Clemson said. “My last job was 27 years as an instructor. Prior to that, I was an electrician and electrical foreman and all that kind of stuff.”

But after the Tamaqua native retired, he took on what he called a second career.

“It was funny how it happened,” Clemson said.

“I got a call that the pastor resigned. And about a half-hour later, I got a call from the president of our denomination who said we’d like you to take over the church, what do you think about that? I looked at my wife, who was in the kitchen with me, and she said what do you think? I said it was OK with me - and she said it’s OK with me.”

And a few years later, he became Pastor Rick Clemson for the American Primitive Methodist Church in Tamaqua.

“At 65, I was asked if I would pastor the church here in Tamaqua. It was my home church and my pastor resigned rather abruptly. I went through taking courses with our denomination, which was a little over four years ago.”

Clemson said it became official on Aug. 15 when he was ordained at a ceremony in Tamaqua.

“I always wanted to do it, but it never worked out that way,” said Clemson. “I went to Stevens Trade School (Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology) when I graduated high school - I graduated on a Sunday and PPL hired us and we started the following day.”

Clemson’s church, which hosts a food giveaway twice a month, is very active in the Tamaqua community.

“I think it’s amazing at the cooperation I’m getting from the community and from people from various churches that want to volunteer,” Clemson said.

“Once the word got out about our food pantry - originally it was just a couple of volunteers from the church. But then as word got out, it was amazing. We had people that would walk by the church seeing us do the distribution and asked if they could help. It’s great to see how people are coming together and get people fed.”

The church is located at 55 Hunter St. For more information, visit tamaquachurch.org or the Primitive Methodist Church Facebook page.