PORT ANGELES — Byron Nelson, who finished a 34-year police career as Sequim police chief in 2002, died Sept. 2.
Family members say Nelson, 77, died peacefully at the Golden Years Residential Care Home, succumbing to Lewy body dementia after battling the disease.
Nelson led the Sequim Police Department from 1996-2002. During his tenure, he focused on modernizing equipment and tactics for the department as well as community policing.
He also led the department in obtaining grants for such items as a speed enforcement trailer and updated and replaced an outdated fleet of police vehicles.
Sequim Police Chief Sheri Crain, who worked under Nelson during his tenure, said one of Nelson’s lasting legacies was establishing the Volunteers in Police Service (VIPS) program, along with the department’s K-9 program, and providing upgrades in equipment.
“We still take a great deal of pride in …. our uniforms, our K-9 program, our cars, the VIPS program. Everybody else should be jealous of [them],” Crain said.
“Those are the big ones that really stand out as really valuable pieces.”
Crain said VIPS, which now boasts 26 community volunteers, started with a group of nine people, each of whom served the department for at least a decade.
“It’s a fabulous program,” Crain said.
Nelson also was instrumental in the creation of the Sequim Skate Park and in introducing a no-hunting ordinance in the city when locals began having problems with migrations of Sequim’s Roosevelt elk herd.
Nelson sang with a barbershop quartet and other groups.
Sgt. Dave Campbell, Nelson’s first hire, helped lead the new K-9 unit with K-9 Officer Huey.
“He kind of modernized our department,” Campbell said of Nelson.
“He was a big proponent of community-oriented policing [and] he left a large footprint on our department. Nothing that he started has really died down.
“It was really, really upsetting — the worst day I’ve had in awhile, actually for a lot of us,” Campbell said of hearing about the chief’s death. “But a lot of good memories. He was a great chief. Definitely an end of an era.”
Nelson will be interred at Tahoma National Cemetery in Kent. A celebration-of-life service will be held at the Azusa Senior Center in Azusa, Calif., on Oct. 7.
Family members ask that donations in lieu of flowers be made to the Alzheimer’s Association at www.alz.org.
Nelson, who grew up in Wisconsin Rapids, Wis., is survived by his wife, Barbara, of Sequim. The pair met in 1958 and were married in 1959. They raised three sons, primarily in Covina, Calif.: Lt. Ronald Nelson of Windsor, Calif.; Daniel of Moreno Valley, Calif.; and Chris Nelson of San Diego.
Nelson also is survived by his sister, Naomi Bradford of Saugus, Calif.; seven grandchildren; five great-grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews.
Out of retirement
The Sequim chief position came after Nelson’s first retirement, his son Ronald Nelson noted. After a 27-year stint with the Azusa Police Department, Byron retired as police chief in 1995. He and his wife, Barbara, then moved to Sequim.
“He loved the beauty of the Olympic Peninsula, and the fact that the winter season was not as harsh as Wisconsin,” Ron Nelson wrote.
During his first year in Sequim, Nelson learned that Sequim Police Chief Russ Barnes was leaving the position and that city leaders were considering disbanding the department and contracting with the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office for policing services, Ron Nelson recalled.
The retired chief then contacted Sequim’s city manager and expressed his views over lunch, and was subsequently offered the Sequim police chief position. Byron wanted to focus on his hobbies of horse riding, woodworking, fishing and camping, Ron Nelson recalled, so he initially turned the job down.
Ultimately, he took the position on an interim basis and accepted the permanent job months later. Byron told the City Council in 1997 he would stay on for two more years, but he didn’t leave the position until 2002.
He retired that year at age 63, abdicating the job to Ken Burge.
“There was a lot of hard work, but people were teaching me, training me,” Nelson said in 2002, soon after announcing his [second] retirement. “I’ve had the opportunity to do a ton of things in and outside of law enforcement. It’s been an exciting career.”
He once described the job of a police officer as sheer boredom followed by moments of absolute panic.
“We’re expected to know everything about everything. That’s an incredible responsibility,” Nelson said. “We deal with life and death every day. It’s the adrenaline that kills us.”
Nelson began his career in July 1968 with the Azusa Police Department. He was promoted to sergeant in 1973, lieutenant in 1977, captain in 1988 and was selected as the department’s chief in 1990.
Ron Nelson said his father enjoyed working with the community’s younger residents.
“He felt strongly that the hopes and future of a community lie within its youth,” Ron Nelson wrote.
Prior to his law enforcement career, Byron worked in the aerospace industry in Southern California. He had attended North Hollywood High School and enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1958. He was trained as a tank driver and Howitzer operator and was stationed in Germany. He earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from California State University-Los Angeles in 1976.
Nelson’s family members said he became known as “The Chief” at Golden Years and that he received “amazing, compassionate care” from staff at Golden Years and Assured Hospice.
“True to his nature, Chief Nelson never stopped trying to help people and was known in the facility for always looking out for the other residents,” Ron Nelson wrote.
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Michael Dashiell is the editor of the Sequim Gazette of the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which also is composed of other Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News and Forks Forum. Reach him at editor@sequimgazette.com.
