MEMORIES OF SOME POLICE OFFICERS I KNEW - BY GINO CAMPIONI

Photo courtsey of Marvin Del Chiaro. Top row (l to r): Damon Knight, Ron Daugherty, Marvin Del Chiaro, Donald ??, Jerry Mungai, David McCabe, name forgotten. Middle row (l to r): Ivan Comelli, Jim Ceragioli, Dennis Soo Hoo, Neil ??, Mario Rodoni, Louis Costa, Gay-lea Morse. Bottom row (l to r): Barbara Jean Smith, Barbara Silva, Jeanette Benedetti,
Shirley Machado, Ellen Herrman, Marion Hagler, Marcia Pori.

FOR THIS MEMORIAL WEEKEND, I THOUGHT I WOULD PUBLISH AN E-MAIL I RECEIVED FROM GINO CAMPIONI. IN IT HE REMINISCES ABOUT SOME POLICE OFFICERS HE KNEW DURING HIS LIFE TIME. ONE IS CHARLES DERBY WHO WAS A MEMBER OF THE SANTA CRUZ POLICE DEPARTMENT. IN 'LA NOSTRA COSTA', I WRITE HOW INFLUENTIAL OFFICER (LATER SERGEANT) DERBY WAS ON MY OWN POLICE CAREER. UNFORTUNATELY, I DO NOT HAVE A PHOTO OF CHARLES DERBY, OR I WOULD HAVE PUBLISHED IT WITH GINO'S ARTICLE. AS A SUBSTITUTE I CHOSE TO PUBLISH A PHOTO OF WHAT WAS CERTAINLY PART OF OFFICER DERBY'S LEGACY, THE TRAFFIC BOYS AND GIRLS OF LAUREL SCHOOL. AS I WRITE IN THE BOOK, OFFICER DERBY SPENT A CONSIDERABLE AMOUNT OF TIME TRAINING US FOR OUR ENDEAVORS AT THE SCHOOL. IT PAID OFF! WE WON TWO FIRST PLACE TROPHY'S AT THE YEAR END BBQ HELD AT DELAVEAGA PARK IN SANTA CRUZ. THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES OFFICER DERBY AND YOU ALSO GINO.

Hello Ivano,

I am coming to the end of reading La Nostra Costa for the second time, and last night read the part about your police career. That prompted me to send you some thoughts about some lawmen I have known.

I do remember officer Derby, having seen him several times at school. I may have been in a class on traffic safety or something. He made frequent appearances at Mission Hill School.

Did you know Officer Dennis Finnegan? He made an imposing figure riding his police Harley, sitting straight in the saddle as if he were in a parade. I certainly admired
him.

Another policeman who lived just up the street from me was Officer Ray Carpenter. He rode bikes too. One day he was after someone and drove down a hill and had to make a wide right turn onto Beach Street, and ran head-on into a pickup driven by his neighbor John Strohbien. (air raid warden years before) Ray was thrown over the windshield and into the bed of the truck. He suffered a back injury and could not ride motorcycles afterward.

I know I already told you of my meeting with Captain Klein at the corner of Race and Park in San Jose. Partly because of his understanding and partly from my apologetic behavior, my failing to see the stop light only resulted in receiving a request from the traffic court of "Fine $1. Bail $1". I paid it with gratitude.

Bob King was a member of Santa Cruz Police Dept. I met him at the Santa Cruz County Model Airplane Club. I had built a model Piper Tripacer airplane, and wanted to give it a fine finish. Bob offered to paint it for me, and did a fine job. He lived not far from me, perhaps on Seaside St. One day, while driving on Bay St. past Seaside, I had a police car behind me with flashing lights. On stopping I found that it was Officer Bob. (nothing wrong. He just wanted to talk about model airplanes)

You would not know this one, but may have known of his doings: Stanley O. Nicolayson was a member of California Highway Patrol in Los Angeles. He rode police motorcycles. He had an accident while riding his bike, and severely injured his back. He was not able to continue as a CHP Officer. While recuperating, he pondered what he might do to earn a living by other means. He had always liked Mexican food, and decided to make it more available to the general public at reasonable prices. He started a restaurant which became popular so he added others and these spread throughout the Western United States. He called his business, "Taco Bell".
Stan also has other businesses in Oregon. (S.O.N. Enterprises) He is involved in many operations. I first met him when he and I were members of the Salem Fourth Ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I used to sit next to him at choir rehearsals. More recently he was called to be a member of the presidency of the Portland Temple.

This one you might have known: Merlin Ellis was a tall and heavy officer. (I don't think he would have done well on motorcycles) He was an expert on firearms, and rented a room in the shop where Gerhard Schreiber and I worked. He rebored and balanced police pistols so that (in his own words) they became WEAPONS! He also was keen on home built helicopters. He built one with a Lycoming engine, parts from a wrecked Piper Cub, bits and scraps, etc. It never flew, which was fortunate. A ground test of the thing nearly did him in.

I used to take my lunch to work in a paper bag and leave it on a counter. Occasionally I would come back from service calls at noon and find my lunch gone. Merlin was hungry! I got a bit tired of that trick, so knowing he did not like pickles, I fixed a lunch with a sandwich loaded with peperoncini. That day I came in for lunch and found a sandwich with one bite out of it. He never stole my lunch again.

Merlin drove his police car onto my driveway one day. He said that a lady several blocks away was having severe TV interference from my radio. I don't know how it was determined that it was my radio that was causing the problem, but we went to look. (my only ride in a police car) It was a customer of Paul Pay's Rainbow TV shop. I had worked on that TV shortly before. I checked the service information for that set. (an ancient GE black & white table model) It had a main amplifier string operating on 21 Megahertz. Exactly the frequency range on which I ran my radio. (legal frequencies for amateur radio, no longer being used for any other purpose) There was no way to keep a 21 MHz signal out of a 21 MHz receiver. The customer did not understand and was very upset. The TV solved the problem. Shortly thereafter, it self-destructed. She couldn't blame me for that. (although she might have thought so)

Saluti Gino