FARMINGTON — When Dean Hart started as a police officer on the campus of the University of Maine at Farmington in August of 1985, he was told not to let the students call him by his first name.

That didn’t fit in with his philosophy, he told a group of co-workers, friends and family who gathered for a surprise retirement party held Thursday in Olsen Student Center.

In fact, as a night officer, he would visit the dorms, walking the halls and talking to students. He wanted them to get to know him as a person.

“They would open up to you better and it was easier when you had to deal with them,” he said.

Amongst the numerous good words spoken of his 27-years at UMF, his interaction with the students and his “superb” memory were first.

Before record keeping was what it is now, Hart would remember students and events, said UMF Police Chief Ted Blais. He remembered everyone.

“He was always looking out for the safety of the students,” Blais said.

Dean also knows Farmington, Blais said. As a child, his grandfather was the only taxi driver in town and he’d ride around with him.

His police career stretches into 30-plus years, son Caleb Hart said as he and wife, Kathyann, waited for Dean to arrive.

Hart started in law enforcement in 1974 first working for Farmington Police Department then Livermore Falls and for Jay Police during the employee strike at International Paper. He has also been a deputy for the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department.

Before his police work, he served several years in the Air Force, Caleb said.

UMF President Kathryn Foster shared highlights she had learned about his career at UMF. Two of those were life-saving measures.

Early in his career, in 1985, Hart was credited with assisting a woman in a car that was on fire. He put the fire out and saved her, she said.

Last year in March of 2011, he acted when a student collapsed, giving her CPR and saving her life.

Few seemed to know that he had attended Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Mo., and is an ordained Baptist minister.

Blais presented Hart with a chair and shadow box containing memories of his career including a beaver police patch for the UMF beavers.

It’s a tradition, no matter what position you have at UMF, to receive a chair when you retire, Hart told the gathering.

The patch was significant, he said, because when he started at UMF police were security officers. With town streets running through the campus, college police were sworn in as Farmington Police Department officers so they could make arrests, he said. The UMF officers would wear a Farmington Police patch on the right sleeve of their uniform and the beaver patch on the left sleeve.

While discussing this last day of work, Hart, 65, told his son it was exciting but sad.

“Dad said it was not just a job. It’s been my lifestyle,” he said.

Caleb Hart remembers the Dad “his friends thought was cool.”

“He was loved by the college students and my friends growing up,” he added.

For Hart this last day “feels good.” He’ll miss being with the young people though.

After working under four different UMF presidents, the job has only gotten better over the years, he said.

He finds the students are now more responsible than in earlier years. He also credits many improvements to former President “Theo” Theodora Kalikow.

“I liked the way she did things,” he said.

As for tomorrow, his first day of retirement, there are no plans but he anticipates that will soon change.

abryant@sunjournal.com

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