Laura Wilson sworn in as university's sixth police chief

BY BARBARA PALMER

Laura Wilson was sworn in as the university's sixth police chief in an emotional ceremony last Friday afternoon that both looked to the future and paid tribute to former police chiefs Marvin Herrington and Marvin Moore.

Moore, a popular 28-year veteran of the force, became police chief in April 2001 and died suddenly of a sudden heart attack Feb. 10. Herrington, who retired in July 2001 after 30 years as chief, returned to the Department of Public Safety to serve as interim police chief until Wilson was sworn in.

Wilson, a Stanford alumna and the first woman to be named chief, "is the future of law enforcement," Herrington told a crowd of approximately 200 people gathered in the Ford Gardens at the Frances C. Arrillaga Alumni Center. A 10-year veteran who has held every rank through lieutenant in the department, Wilson is in the top 1 percent of the officers he's known, Herrington said. "Some officers have 20 years of experience and some officers have one year of experience repeated 20 times," but Wilson is that rare officer who gains two to three years' worth of experience each year she serves, he said.

Wilson focused her remarks at the ceremony on her personal values rather than on her vision for the department. "Our actions will suffice more than words," she said.

Wilson thanked her parents, Janet and Robert Wilson, who pinned on Wilson's new rank and insignia bars at the ceremony, for making sure she got a good education and for instilling in her values of honesty, integrity and hard work. She also related a story of returning home to Texas for Thanksgiving during her freshman year and learning of the sudden death of a friend of her younger sister, who was a high school student at the time. The friend had meant a great deal to her sister, Wilson said.

"Death has a way of bringing life into perspective," the police chief said. "I vowed to make people whom I contacted feel valuable and special."

Capt. Nick Brunot, who pinned the chief's badge on Wilson, lightened the mood by riding up to Wilson on a borrowed scooter -- Wilson is an avid cyclist -- and presenting her with a bouquet of yellow roses. "I hooked you into this mess," said Brunot, who met Wilson when she was working at the university as an events staff coordinator and encouraged her to apply to the force. Brunot called his new boss by the nickname "Kiddo" for what he said was the last time and presented her with marzipan bars, to symbolize the captain's bars she never wore.

Patrol officer Tim Frecceri, president of the Stanford Deputy Sheriffs Association, said he had been in "super-secret planning" with Wilson to take a few moments during her oath of office ceremony to express the department's deep gratitude to Chief Herrington. It was Herrington's strength of character that kept the department focused on providing protection to the Stanford community in the difficult days following Moore's death, he said. Moore, himself a dynamic friend and inspiring leader, always concluded meetings with the words, "Remember, we are all family," Frecceri recalled.

"He was right. We are a family of women and men, dedicated to the core values of the department. ... We have been and shall remain Marv Herrington's family."