Chief Kent Donahue, my friend

Between work and chores around the homefront, I haven’t had much time to make regular entries. But, the passing of a friend makes one stop and remember all the good times. Yes, Kent Donahue was my friend. When I was just a rookie cop, Kent was one of my training officers, and our friendship grew out of trying to keep each other awake on late shift. In those days, there were only a couple of places open for a break at 4 am. One was Denny’s, and the others were donut shops. Of course, we didn’t want to be around all the drunks hanging out at Denny’s, so we usually opted for donuts. Kent always had a glazed buttermilk donut and a cup of coffee. That usually kept us going until the sun came up. Kent was a big guy, somewhere around 6’8″, and the little Novas we used as patrol cars were a squeeze for him. With the radio mike mounted on the console, he was forever keying it with his leg while we were driving around. One morning, with mike keyed, we were discussing some supervisor (no longer with the department, of course). Luckily, all the other guys on watch covered up by keying their mikes. I’m sure we would’ve gotten in trouble if they hadn’t.

Kent and I also worked Community Relations and Crime Prevention together. We always had fun together, doing presentations and the like. One particular time, we were sent to Atlanta, GA to accept delivery of a community relations robot. I believe we eventually named him “Captain B. Careful.” Well, the road show was on, with Kent and I taking the Captain to schools and other venues, up to 100 miles away, for presentations. Kent was the front man, and I was the hidden voice and control of the Captain. We even made the national news (CBS, I think it was) at one event. Anyway, I digress. During the trip to Atlanta, we drove a marked patrol car from Greeley, CO. In order to maximize our time in Atlanta, we drove it straight through, and just a couple states away, we started hearing more frequently, “You boys ain’t from around here, are ya?” That became one of the sayings we’d toss at each other once in a while (there was another one, but I’m gonna have to keep that secret, okay with you, Kent?). Anyway, our first day in Atlanta, after getting some rest and cleaning up, we decided to drive the patrol car into downtown Atlanta and check out the sites. We found ourselves in the middle of town and some kind of parade/demonstration was going on. So, here we are, two out-of-state cops in a marked car, meandering our way through a crowd of people carrying banners and signs. Come to find out, it was some sort of civil rights demonstration. We both had a good laugh about the two white cops in a marked patrol car demonstrating with the folk there. Gee, now that I think about it, I wonder if we made the national news on that one too?

The rest of the Atlanta trip went pretty uneventfully, with morning breakfasts of biscuits and gravy, training all day with the robot, and going out at night to shop or see the sites. When we were finally to return to CO, we decided after several days of wading through Atlanta traffic, to make it a short night and take off at like 4am local time. Well, after getting up and checking out, we headed down the freeway. Right according to plan, there was no traffic, and we “dodged the bullet,” escaping being caught in Atlanta rush hour. It wasn’t until we were stopping for breakfast in Alabama that we both realized it was Sunday morning, and there probably wouldn’t have been that much traffic to dodge to begin with. That laugh carried us all the way through Oklahoma.

There are just too many to list here, but suffice it to say, the times I spent with Kent bring some of the fondest memories of my time as a cop. Thanks, Buddy.

Jaime, Jim, and Katie, my thoughts and prayers are with you.