By Bonita Wilborn
The City of Collinsville held a retirement party on Thursday, January 31, 2019 honoring Police Chief Gary Bowen who finally made the decision to retire.
Bowen began his 40-year stint with the Collinsville Police Department in 1979, at the age of 25, as a patrol officer. No doubt he had no idea, way back then, that he would spend the bulk of his adult life with the police department. Nevertheless, the days and years passed by and at retirement he held the distinction of being the longest serving police chief in the State of Alabama. Bowen worked with six different administrations during those years.
After eleven years with the Collinsville Police Department, in 1985 Bowen had moved up in the ranks and was appointed to the position of Chief, where he spent the remaining 34 years.
Collinsville Mayor Johnny Traffanstedt said, “Yesterday was a sad day. Gary has been a long time fixture in the Collinsville Police Department. He is level headed and has the respect of both young and old in our community. He’ll be hard to replace.”
Undeniably, giving up his badge to Mayor Traffanstedt at the retirement party was surely a hard thing to do, especially with about 100 friends and family members looking on, but Bowen admitted, “It probably hasn’t hit me yet. I know I’ll miss the people I worked with.”
As most retirees find out, Bowen already knows that even though he’s retiring, he won’t be having a lot of free time. He’ll be working with the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office as a Security Officer at the courthouse.
Rex Leath will serve as interim chief until a successor is named.
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