Longtime East Lansing police officer prized honor, duty

EAST LANSING -- His name was paired with East Lansing crime through most of the 80s.

But Thomas Hendricks was never the perpetrator.

A long-time spokesman for the East Lansing Police Department, Hendricks was the voice for the department through riots, robberies, shootings and change.

Throughout his years as spokesman, and later as chief, Hendricks was a believer in community policing and collaboration among departments. He also helped form a group to provide for the family of first responders killed in the line of duty.

Despite his public roles, Hendricks' children say he was a humble man with a keen sense of honor and duty.

“That was my dad, no fanfare,” his son, Todd Hendricks, said.

Thomas Hendricks died on Thursday at the age of 88.  He spent his last month with his children by his side while receiving hospice care at his Gladwin home.

Hendricks' children say he leaves a legacy of hard work, public service and generosity.

“We’re very proud of him,” his son, Tom Hendricks Jr., said. “We know where he came from and what he went through in life.”

(Scroll down for archived articles from Hendricks' time in East Lansing.)

Hendricks grew up on a farm in Linden, a small town south of Flint, his daughter Terrie Boggus said. After a stint at a Chevrolet plant in Flint, Hendricks, then 25, was hired as Linden’s lone police officer in 1954.

With little to no law enforcement experience, Hendricks wrote to former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover in 1955, asking for guidance in running the one-man department, Boggus said. Hoover responded about a week later with an FBI law enforcement bulletin and other instructional materials.

Boggus said she remembered the “G.I. clean” appearance her father maintained as chief in Linden, insisting on pressed shirts and spit-shined shoes, belt and holster.

“I was the only daughter in the family so one of my routines was to watch him get ready for work,” she said. "I never knew if he was coming back or not."

In 1959, Hendricks left his $4,000 salary in Linden and started as a patrol officer in East Lansing. He took a pay cut there; his starting salary was $1.29 an hour, about $2,700 a year.

“He thought that we’d all do better being closer to the bigger city,” Tom Hendricks Jr. said.

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32 years in East Lansing

Hendricks' children remember riding in the patrol car with their father, sitting at the dispatch center, or eating with the firefighters who shared the building with police.

Their father’s calm persona, work ethic and determination helped him to rise through the ranks of the East Lansing Police Department, his children said.

Over his 32 years with the department, Hendricks doubled down on schooling and police work, gaining an associates in criminal justice from Lansing Community College and bachelors and masters from Michigan State University in criminal justice. He taught at the police academy at LCC later in his career.

Hendricks served as spokesman for the department through much of the 80s, as East Lansing officers armed in riot gear attempted to quell thousands of people attending the bi-annual Cedarfest at Cedar Village apartments.

As chief, he made tough decisions about how to address the growing popularity of events such as Cedarfest, spring flings, homecoming and alumni gatherings.

In a 1984 article with the headline “East Lansing readies for alumni high-jinks,” Hendricks told the State Journal his job was to maintain “some semblance of order” when an alumnus “who normally wears a three-piece suit does something that doesn’t fit into his current pattern of behavior.”

Hendricks was present in October 1984 when officials notified Valerie Johnson that her husband, East Lansing police officer James Johnson, had been killed in the line of duty. In response to the fatal shooting, Hendricks helped start the The Hundred Club of Greater Lansing, a group that provided for the families of fallen law enforcement.

Hendricks fielded years of questions from media surrounding the murder of Denise Bandfield, a 23-year-old East Lansing woman found dead on a DeWitt golf course in 1981.

As the investigation into Bandfield’s death dragged out, Hendricks told the State Journal the unsolved crime was “a blight over the city and a blight at the department.” Bandfield’s killer wasn’t indicted until 1989, a year after Hendricks became chief.

His children remember the headlines, but one stands out more than the others.

“One of the situations that he talked a lot about was back when he had to tear gas (Vietnam) protesters in East Lansing when I was in Vietnam in the combat zone,” said Tom Hendricks Jr., who was 20 at the time. “That was really tearing him up.”

In September 1988, when Hendricks was chosen to lead the department, an editorial in the State Journal said the selection “showed warranted respect for home-grown talent.”

“From Cedarfest to murder investigations, Hendricks has been there for the city,” the editorial read.

Former Ingham County Sheriff Gene Wriggelsworth was a sergeant with the Michigan State Police Metro Narcotics Squad when Hendricks was chief in East Lansing.

Wriggelsworth said whenever an issue came up, Hendricks was there with a solution.

“He was willing to work with you to fix it,” he said. “I really, really appreciated that about him.”

Larry Sparkes, East Lansing’s current police chief, said he had just started as a jail officer when Hendricks was finishing out his career in 1991.

“He rose through the ranks,” Sparkes said of Hendricks. “I think that speaks to his leadership ability and his motivation to work that hard to climb the ranks.”

When Hendricks announced his retirement in 1990, he told the State Journal he felt he had met his goals.

“There is only about so much one accomplishes in a lifetime,” Hendricks said, in a Nov. 27, 1990 State Journal article. “I’m looking at the reasons I took the job originally, and looking back at those reasons, with the help of a lot of good people I’ve been able to achieve those things.”

A memorial service for Hendricks is scheduled for 11 a.m. Thursday at Gorsline Runciman Funeral Home, 1730 E Grand River Ave, East Lansing, MI 48823. 

In lieu of flowers, donations on behalf of Hendricks may be made to The Hundred Club of Greater Lansing or Heartland Hospice of West Branch.

Contact Beth LeBlanc at (517) 377-1167, eleblanc@gannett.com or on Twitter @LSJBethLeBlanc.