A message from FPCA's President, Chief Keith Chandler:

October 1, 2000

"Lee McGehee"

I want to talk about Lee McGehee. Lee passed away on September 19th at the home of a friend in Ocala. He was recuperating from open heart surgery. His death is a severe loss to those of us who've worked with him over the years, and to law enforcement in Florida.

You see, Lee touched many lives during his extraordinary career in this profession we've all chosen. For example, he served as Ocala's police chief for many years, retiring to take a position with FDLE because he felt he could have more impact on fellow police chiefs and his brethren at FDLE by taking on the awesome task of developing and leading world class executive level training. He did that very well.

What some of you may not know, and what has set him apart from those of us who learn from people like him, is that he - along with several visionary police chiefs in this state, envisioned leadership training as the most important thing this state could deliver to police chiefs and top level managership Florida's sheriffs agencies, police departments, and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Their ideas - and Lee's dedication - created the series of chiefs executive training this state has been blessed with for many years. Lee worked hard to bring this idea to fruition, and I believe he was hired by Tim Moore to do just that. He succeeded beyond people's wildest imaginations, as many of us are graduates of the chiefs executive seminars he spawned. I know the graduates of the session scheduled for October will carry on in the best tradition of past classes.

For the past several years Lee managed FDLE's Leadership Center - which by the way, was his dream. The idea is simple. To develop tomorrow's leaders, you must provide today's middle and top level managers with leadership training that looks beyond the realm of law enforcement thinking.

I've been so impressed by it's success that I've developed a leadership center in the Melbourne Police Department, and have sent people throughout the country, and even to Europe, for training and development. You guessed it. Ours is modeled after FDLE's.

I've served in this honorable profession for thirty-five years, twenty-five as a chief of police. I came to Melbourne in 1985. The purpose of sharing this with you is that, one of the first things I did as Melbourne's new police chief was to direct my staff to begin the process of goal setting and teammanship. I asked my Administrative Assistant, who was active at the state level in planning circles, who he felt was the best innovator in Florida. Without hesitation, he said Lee McGehee of Ocala. I didn't know Lee - didn't even know where Ocala was at that time.

I used the knowledge Lee provided us and started developing my own department's abilities in planning, goal setting, and working together. Melbourne's initial entry into Community Policing was based on Ocala's, and resulted from my sending a team of officers there to learn how they were doing it.

I attended my first Chiefs Seminar in 1990 (Lee was then Ocala's Chief and President of the Florida Police Chiefs Association), and came away with even more respect for him as a person and as a man of vision and commitment to bettering law enforcement in the state.

Based on his teachings, I brought back to Melbourne ideas that became our first annual Executive Development Seminar, and which resulted in our first long range strategic plan. Lee continued to lend his talents to the Melbourne Police Department, coming to executive development seminars and facilitating our organizational growth and improvement.

Lee has filled the same role for the Florida Police Chiefs Association, in addition to serving as Parliamentarian to the Board of Directors for as many years as I can remember. He facilitated our first strategic planning session in April, and was scheduled to facilitate our latest one, which was held on September 12-13. His heart attack changed all that. We completed the task, but Lee was sorely missed, not only for his skill, but his wonderful personality.

I mentioned earlier that Lee touched many lives. I know for sure that he's touched the lives of Melbourne's 71,000 residents, Ocala's 45,000, the lives of every person in every city and town that's had the fortune of having their chief or command personnel listen to him teach the principles of today's policing, the lives of employees throughout law enforcement in this state, all who knew him within FDLE, the Florida Police Chief's Association, his Church, his community, and his loved ones, both family and everyone else who had the privilege of circling within his sphere of influence.

Lee McGehee was a friend of law enforcement, a friend of the people who rely on law enforcement to protect and serve them, and a friend to many of us in the chiefs association. If you had the fortune to know this wonderful man, you know what I'm talking about. If you've had the opportunity to sit and listen to his brilliance, you've learned from one of the masters. If you've experienced his strong faith in God, you know what it means to be a Christian.

In my twenty-five years as a chief executive, I can count on one hand the number of police chiefs who I believe have had the most significant impact on policing in their cities and/or states, by demonstrating the highest personal and professional qualities imaginable. Lee McGehee fits that bill. He was universally trusted, respected, and loved.

For those of us who counted Lee as our friend, we certainly could have done worse. None of us, however, could have done better.