Credit: Melissa Marrero

The Rutgers University Police Department paid a heartfelt tribute to its only member lost in the line of duty at the dedication of a permanent memorial in honor of the late Detective Richard E. McGilvery October 12. The ceremony took place outside the new Public Safety Building on Commercial Avenue, New Brunswick, where a cast bronze plaque was unveiled at the foot of the flagpole.

McGilvery died at the age of 33 from a gunshot would after his service revolver went off accidentally during an investigation of a campus break-in October, 6, 1978. He left his wife and three small children, including an 8-month-old son, Richard J. The younger McGilvery, a Rutgers graduate, chose a career in law enforcement and served with RUPD before joining the East Brunswick Police Department a few months ago.

The late detective’s family was joined by dozens of past and present RUPD officers, who stood at attention as a police bagpiper played and a Rutgers honor guard raised the American flag at the start of the ceremony. Those who served with McGilvery shared their memories, often with tears in their eyes, of the man they said loved his family and his work. The most moving moment came when his widow, Roberta, read a poem she had written for her husband on the 25th anniversary of his death. 

 McGilvery was remembered for being instrumental in establishing the RUPD’s mounted patrol – the first at an American university – with horses on loan from New York City. A photo of McGilvery in uniform astride a horse is mounted on a plaque that now hangs inside the building. Chief Rhonda Harris noted that the original plaque in McGilvery’s memory had hung in numerous spots in the RUPD’s former headquarters on Huntington Street and that now the department could finally acknowledge his sacrifice with a more prominent and fitting memorial.

                                                                                                                                                      - Sandra Lanman