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Most Recent Reflection
George, I've researched your life and death over the past 2 years. I've met your surviving brother, Karl, who has told me about your life, which ended all too sudden on that night in May, 1941 on State Road 3. When I began my research, I had just turned 25, which is the same age you were at the time of your death. You were just a kid almost, on your way home to be with your wife when you got off-duty. You never had any kids so a family of your own never did live on.
I've read the newspaper accounts and seen the pictures of your death there near Paris, Indiana about how the trailer took off the top of your car. Your widow had heard of a wreck, but did not know you were involved in it.
You were the 4th ISP trooper to lose your life in the line of duty, but the 1st as a result of a traffic fatality, in which 51% of ISP troopers have lost their life to.
I've worked so hard on getting the research to the Indiana State Senate to name the new bridge over the site where your car came to rest that night and you took your last breath on earth after you. We're 99% of the way there with the road signs in place.
Every day on my way to and from work, I drive the same path as you did and I think back to what you could have been thinking about during those last few minutes of your life as you began to drive down the hill and meet the truck carrying the horse trailer which would eventually result in your demise. If a detour on US 31 was not in place that night, it probably would not have taken that route and you would have lived through that day. Who's to say that you would or would not have been here today?
I hope that you are resting peacefully and that you have got some pleasure out of getting the bridge named in your honor. I think of it as a way for your to finish your trip home that night since you did not quite make it there, hopefully this will help you.
People all too often forget the sacrifices that law enforcement officers make to protect them, but know that you are not forgotten.
Deputy Probation Officer Cory Walker
Jennings County Superior Court Probation Department
July 18, 2006
