By Stephen Kurczy
Published on 8/12/2005
The banners hanging in the Stonington High School gymnasium are fond memories for Stonington police Chief David Erskine.
He played first base when Stonington's baseball team won the state championship in 1960, played tackle when Stonington's football team won the Eastern Connecticut Conference championship in 1961, and was a 6-foot-1 All-ECC forward in basketball.
Erskine knew many sports in the athletic department. Forty-five years later he knows just as many positions in Stonington's police department, having joined the force as a 21-year-old patrolman in 1965.
David Erskine was born in 1944 in Newport, R.I. His mother was a descendent of the Palmer family of Stonington, while his father came from Manchester, N.H. The family moved to Stonington when Erskine was 2.
After graduating from Stonington High School, Erskine married his girlfriend, Marcia Culver, honeymooned in the Pocono Mountains, and got a job at Electric Boat.
"I really didn't like working there," Erskine said of EB. "I'm a personable guy. I like to get involved with the people and so forth."
When EB workers went on strike in 1965, Erskine happened to bump into a friend -- Jim Spellman, who at that time was first selectman of Stonington -- who convinced him to join the police.
"He talked me into it," said Erskine, who received an associate's degree from Three Rivers and later attended the 11-week police training program at the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Va. "I took the chance and really fell in love with the job."
In 1971 Erskine was promoted to sergeant. Five years later he was appointed youth officer and began working at the high school, "helping teenagers in the right direction." He was overseeing the detective division by 1978; then in 1983 he was promoted from sergeant to captain.
His first stint at the helm of the department came in 1988; he was acting chief for several months between the reigns of Chief Carl H. Johnson Jr. and Chief Patrick F. Hedge.
Each of the former police chiefs was a mentor to Erskine. "They were all instrumental to my career," he said.
Hedge appointed Erskine deputy chief in 1989, and on March 1, 1999, Erskine ascended to the top spot of the department, which now has 35 full-time police officers.
"I'm a hell of a lot older than they are," Erskine said. "But we all get along."
There are a total of 51 employees at the station, and Erskine knows each by name.
"Did you have any of that bread my wife made?" Erskine asked Byron Howard, who has known Erskine for over 50 years and has been the station's full-time janitor for 11.
"Blueberry bread -- delicious," Howard answered.
"The chief's a good guy and he does a good job," Howard later said.
Tim Desillier has worked as dispatcher with the department for 17 years.
"I've worked with him for 17 years," Desillier said. "He goes to bat for us."
Erskine said the most difficult cases are child abuse and domestics; the most dangerous are the late-night calls: "Stopping the car at night and going to these domestic calls not knowing what you're up against."
Every morning, Erskine steps up to bat after a bowl of Wheaties. He is in the office by 7:30 a.m. and drinks a coffee while checking phone messages, paperwork and mail. He then talks with supervisors about what happened during the night, and reviews the log for the past 24 hours.
Things get busy between 10 and 1, Erskine said, though he manages to eat some fruit, if anything, for lunch. Come 3 p.m., people are out of work and looking for Erskine.
A large part of the police chief's job is receiving and making phone calls. "I'm on this phone half the day," Erskine said. The day ends between 4:30 and 5.
"I look back and there's been some times when it's been difficult -- internal investigations and letting people go. But there've been a lot more positive times. I think I've helped a lot of people and been able to do a lot of good things."
Erskine is also treasurer of the Wequetequock Fire Department and a member of the Lions Club and a number of police organizations. As a member of the Stonington Hall of Fame Committee, the former high school athlete spends spare evenings reading old newspapers in search of the hall's next inductee.