Jerry Alton Church, Sr., 70: Forest Park assistant police chief

Jerry Church was quite qualified to serve as Forest Park police chief. When the agency's top post became available in the mid-1990s, he'd already been with the agency for decades.

But this lawman deferred.

"He was comfortable being the No. 2 guy," said current Forest Park chief L. Dwayne Hobbs. "Talk to any chief and he'll tell you that the political part of the job is the hardest challenge. We are trained to deal with the bad guys, not the political part of it. He didn't like the political part of it."

Still, he enjoyed law enforcement, said Joy Trammel Church, his wife of 30 years.

"He liked trying to help people, no matter how bad," she said. "If he arrested somebody, he tried to talk to them."

Officers knew they'd acted improperly when the commander addressed them as "buddy" and asked that they step into his office.

"That meant they'd get a chewing out," his wife said, "but soon it would all be over. Then, they'd move on to something else."

On Tuesday, Jerry Alton Church Sr. of Forest Park died in his sleep at home. He was 70. The funeral will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at Jones Memorial United Methodist Church in Morrow. Thomas L. Scroggs Funeral Directors of Morrow is in charge of arrangements.

For 40 years, Mr. Church was a lawman with the Forest Park police department, rising from patrol officer to assistant chief. He was the agency's longest tenured employee when he retired in 2005 with the rank of colonel.

Mr. Church was a captain when Chief Hobbs joined the force as a patrol officer. He worked with Mr. Church more than 30 years and considered him a staunch supporter who helped nurture his career. Mr. Hobbs became chief in 1996.

"He was just an honorable man with high expectations for our profession," he said. "What he expected from us was greater than what the professional standard was. He had a gentle but firm hand in guiding us."

Mr. Church was born in Anderson, S.C. He moved to Griffin in 1944 and a few later years relocated to Forest Park. He enjoyed dirt-track car racing and vacations in Panama City, where 11 years ago he and his wife met Theresa and Jerry Overstreet of Nashville. The couples had vacationed together ever since.

Last summer when Mr. Overstreet had surgery for prostate cancer, their friends paid a visit.

"We just hit it off," Mrs. Overstreet said. "They are down-home, good, honest people. My children consider them aunt and uncle. They are just like our family."