GERECKE RETIRES AS INSTRUCTOR OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE AT SEMO

All good things must come to and end, and the teaching career of Col. Henry H. Gerecke is no exception.

Students, faculty members and friends of Gerecke assembled in the Johnson Faculty Center at Southeast Missouri State University Thursday afternoon to salute the former Cape Girardeau police chief, who is retiring after 10 years of teaching.

"This has been one of the grandest experiences I have ever had," Gerecke said. "It was one of the most invigorating, stimulating and informative things I've ever done."

Gerecke was presented with a plaque by his co-workers, recognizing his years of service and contributions to the university.

Gerecke served as police chief in Cape Girardeau for seven years during the 1970s and early 1980s. That was after serving in the U.S. Army for more than 35 years. He is a veteran of World War II.

"Now I'm ready to do the things we always wanted to do, but never got the chance," Gerecke said. He and his wife, Mildred, plan on travelling, visiting their grandchildren in Fort Leonard Wood, reading, writing and listening to classical music.

"I hate travelling in the summer months," Gerecke said. "Now we can come and go at our leisure."

Before retirement, Gerecke was restricted to travelling during the summer months or during spring or Christmas breaks at the university.

After Gerecke left the police department in 1981, the university offered him the opportunity to teach as an adjunct faculty member in the field of criminal justice.

Since that time, Gerecke has taught courses in criminal justice, police administration and has developed the security curriculum for the university.

The former police chief also donated one of the most extensive law enforcement libraries in the state to the university. The library includes hundreds of books, training manuals, monographs and lesson plans.

The collection was gathered during Gerecke's law enforcement career, which spanned more than 40 years. It includes several hard-to-find editions such as "System of Criminalistics" by the German criminalist Hans Gross and an early edition of O.W. Wilson's "Police Administration."

"When I started teaching here, there were no textbooks or study plans for security training," Gerecke said. "I'm leaving them with a library, films and two file cabinets chocked full of information."

Gerecke said that he learned a lot from teaching.

"You can't just stand up there and shoot a bunch of garbage at the class and expect them to digest it just because you're the professor," Gerecke said. "When a student stumps me, or sees things differently than I do, I tell them and encourage that exchange.

"As I used to say: That's a lousy idea just because I didn't have it," Gerecke quipped.

But Gerecke is not dropping out of the picture completely. He can be found almost every morning at a local restaurant drinking coffee, talking politics and tackling major and not-so-major current issues.

"There comes a time when it is time to leave," Gerecke said. "This is my time to leave. Will I regret it? Hell yes. But the time has come and I'm going."