Gary Avery - San Diego Police Department

It is with a heavy heart that I write this post.

I just recently found out from Randy Gibson (former Evidence Technician and now the Questioned Documents Examiner for SDPD) that Gary Avery had passed away earlier this year. Gary was my supervisor at the San Diego Police Department when I worked in the field services unit (Evidence Technicians) of SDPD.

Gary was the person who interviewed me for my internship at SDPD and was the one who made the decision that I would join his department to learn from all the great evidence techs at SDPD. He allowed me to not only do standard intern work (like dust for fingerprints in the lab or take photos of evidence in the lab) but also to go out on as many homicide call outs that I could handle.

Gary gave me opportunities that many other interns did not have the opportunity to do. He always encouraged me to work alongside the technicians as much as I wanted. Even though he knew I had a very heavy school load of 21 credit hours or more per semester, he did not stop me from going to homicides even if that meant getting called out at 2:00 AM. Not many interns got opportunities like that. He even gave me a bullet-proof vest to use when I requested one. I don't think ANY interns ever get that!

When he found out that I played guitar and made recordings, he encouraged me to talk to Randy Gibson because Randy played music too. Eventually Randy and I worked on a song that Randy wrote called the "Evidence Tech Blues" which we recorded at my home. Gary loved that song so much that he played a cassette copy of it for everyone at the lab. He thought it was really cool that one of his technicians and his intern could produce a song that really parodied life as an Evidence Tech. (It WAS a cool song...)

When the time had come for me to graduate and my time as an intern was close to over, he went to police chief Bob Burgreen and had a special certificate made and signed by the chief of police to recognize me for the work I had done for the department. He told me that no other intern had ever had this type of recognition from the chief of police. I don't know if he was just saying that to make me feel good or if it was the truth, but it really meant a lot to me. Later he and all the evidence techs took me out for a special goodbye dinner and presented me with a SDPD plaque commemorating my time at the police department. That plaque was displayed on the wall of my home in San Diego and still hangs proudly on my wall in Mount Prospect today.

Eventually, Gary went on from being the Evidence Tech's supervisor to becoming the supervisor of the Latent Print department.

I last spoke with Gary a couple of years ago when I called him to see what was happening at SDPD. Ever helpful, he reminded me that if I ever needed his help in anything or perhaps a nice referral for any work I was after, I could always count on him. I knew he meant it because he helped me with a nice referral when I landed my position with the Chula Vista Police Department and with the San Diego District Attorney's Office.

He was a terrific guy who will always hold a special place in my heart. I have truly lost a great friend and mentor.

Here's to you Gary!