Former Naval Officer, IT Executive and NSA Programmer Running for Selectmen

For the past eight years, Jonathan Asher has served on a number of town boards in Hingham, as one of a relatively small group of residents who volunteer their time and private sector skills to bolster municipal operations.

This spring he is seeking elected office for the first time, as a member of the Board of Selectmen. He has pulled nominating paperwork to pursue the seat left vacant by Board Chair Bruce Rabuffo's retirement, and says he would bring to the position both business acumen and a reputation of consensus building.

Asher, during his years of volunteerism and now as a selectmen candidate, has drawn from a diverse background.

He earned a mathematics degree, served in the U.S. Navy and for the National Security Agency, worked at the White House as a contractor for IBM, where he once bumped into President Jimmy Carter, and helmed IT companies that ran operations for major corporations such as BP.

"If you've got the skills, ability and time, you've really got to pay it forward," Asher said in a recent interview. "There's an obligation each of us has to serve."

Asher first began serving in Hingham in 2006, when he was appointed to the Capital Outlay Committee. He then joined the Advisory Committee, and has also put in time with the Veterans Council, both helping the veterans agent with administrative work and serving as the council treasurer.

Through those experiences, Asher said, he has learned the town budget backward and forward, and has had the opportunity to negotiate potentially controversial issues, such as deciding where to celebrate Medal of Honor recipient Herbert L. Foss.

"My leadership style has always been to build consensus," Asher said.

Asher grew up in Rhinebeck, NY, a small town perhaps best known for hosting Chelsea Clinton's wedding. He attended Colgate University, at first studying chemistry, but ultimately graduated Magna Cum Laude in mathematics.

After college, he joined IBM, working there for several months while he waited to attend Officer Candidate School in Newport, RI. Upon graduation he was assigned to a secret naval base in Japan, and was later transferred to the National Security Agency's headquarters in Maryland.

He did coding work on computers the size of a Panera Bread, and used an early, government-developed version of the Internet.

Asher took those skills and brought them back to IBM in 1972. He started as a programmer/analyst, working on contracts with companies such as Geico and Amtrak, and eventually landed a gig helping to run IT at the White House, working primarily out of the adjacent Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

That turned into an IBM sales job, pitching to government agencies like the CIA, and eventually Asher moved into a director position, overseeing all professional services in the mid-Atlantic.

Asher and his second wife Isabel moved to Hingham in 1997, after their youngest son went off to college.

They were going on vacation and decided to drive down the coast from the North Shore to the Cape, stopping along the way to look for a place to live. When they hit Hingham, it was Touch-a-Truck Day. The couple saw the beach, the kids clamoring over the vehicles, drove into town and immediately decided to settle here.

"We didn't get halfway down Main Street before we said, 'This is it,'" Asher said.

Today Asher serves as chair of the Water Company Acquisition Study Committee.

He and his fellow committee members have been tasked with determining what it will cost the town to purchase the Aquarion-run system. Town Meeting voted to look into it after running up against high water rates, regular price increases and a lag in infrastructure improvements.

The town filed suit against Aquarion last summer to determine a price, though Asher said he still believes the two parties could reach a negotiated settlement. He and others involved in the suit will begin the deposition process soon.

Asher will resign from the water committee if he prevails in the town election on May 3.

Collecting the 50 signatures to get on the ballot won't be a problem, Asher said, but he is getting an education in retail politics and said he is having a good time listening to residents' concerns outside of a hearing room.

"I don't know that I'm a natural politician in terms of stump speeches and a chicken in every pot," Asher said. "But I enjoy it and I'm learning."