(l-r) Jason and Rena Pilalas and Angela Olsen celebrate the Fourth of July at Morgan Point Light House.

by Angela Olsen

If you spend any time at all in local watering holes, you’ll hear more fish tales than there are fish in the sea!  People you met ten years ago with grandiose ‘get-rich schemes’ are still singing that same old song, bumming a smoke and five bucks from the person next to them.  Enter a young boy with a dream, “Mr. P” Jason Pilalas, Vietnam Veteran, Financial Wizard, teller of naughty jokes, humanitarian and that ol’ tune becomes a melodic masterpiece!

Jason grew up in Greenwich, loved history and reading, and received a small row boat at the age of ten.  He cruised around in his boat gazing at the Great Captain’s Island Light House in the Western Long Island Sound dreaming of some day living in it.  He went away to The New Hampton Boarding School in New Hampshire in 1954 and subsequently, ran away to join the Navy.

After doing the “not-so-glamorous’ job of chipping paint, Jason was granted a full scholarship to the University of Southern California, (USC), where he met the love of his life, and wife, Rena.  To this day he still questions whether his Head Master from New Hampton might have had something to do with this.  Upon graduation, he was commissioned as an officer in the Navy and served our country in Vietnam, completing three tours, including one in the Mekong Delta.

In 1991, local landmark Morgan Point Light House became available for sale and happens to be the twin of the Great Captain’s Island Light House which Jason dreamed of as a kid.  He says,  “Rena was reluctant because it was in rough shape,” but they saw it through and it is now a remarkable property, a private nautical museum.

Jason and Rena welcome many local people every year to celebrate the Fourth of July at Morgan Point, including a guest of honor this year, local legend, Captain Ben Rathbun.  On the people of Noank, Jason says, “I’m fortunate enough now that I can live anywhere, yet it’s the ‘salt of the Earth people’ here that influenced our decision to make Noank our summer home.”  In terms of his diplomacy and generosity with the staff of his yacht “The Rena” Jason says, “The humble jobs I held from age fifteen years old made me a democrat with a small-’d’.”

Rena and Jason have two remarkable adult children Debbie and Troy who both lend themselves to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and raise hundreds of thousands of dollars through their efforts.  When I ask Jason the secret to enduring love with his bride Rena, he laughs and says, “She puts up with me.”

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