Robert Thom a true community servant

Robert H. Thom lived most of his life in Coeur d’Alene doing what he loved most – serving his community, the place he often referred to as “his town.”

A respected and dedicated former police officer who served Coeur d’Alene for 25 years, Thom died June 7 at Kootenai Medical Center at the age of 67.

He was born on April 29, 1937, in North Dakota. His family moved to Coeur d’Alene when he was 2, briefly returning to North Dakota before settling in Hayden Lake.

Thom attended Bryan Elementary School and Coeur d’Alene High School but dropped out of school after his sophomore year. Later recognizing the importance of education, he earned his GED. He continued his education throughout his adult life, earning numerous college credits through North Idaho College, Lewis-Clark State College and Washington State University.

He married his wife, Laura, in 1958 in Coeur d’Alene. Debra Smith, the couple’s only child, who now lives in Rathdrum, Idaho, was born in 1959.

Although Thom’s career as a police officer spanned 25 years, Thom held numerous jobs before he discovered the police work he so loved. He worked for Kaiser, Columbia Electric, Cecil Kennedy Buick and Coeur d’Alene Stud Mill.

Laura Thom laughed as she recounted how the Coeur d’Alene Stud Mill hired Thom.

“He would get up early every morning and walk to the mill and ask if they had any openings. Every morning they would tell him they didn’t, until one morning, the boss decided that he (Thom) must really need a job because he kept showing up.” The mill, impressed by Thom’s perseverance, hired him that day.

Thom was working at the Forest Service – a job he loved because of his passion for the outdoors – when he became friends with Freddy Holzer, who was a Coeur d’Alene police officer at that time. An injury Thom sustained to the arches of his feet made the demands of his Forest Service job difficult to fulfill. So when Holzer, whose son worked with Thom, told him the Coeur d’Alene Police Department was hiring, Thom immediately applied.

The Coeur d’Alene Police Department hired Thom in October 1960. During those early years of his career, Thom was paid little more than $300 a month, which was an average wage for a police officer at that time. He supplemented his income by working for Luke’s Transfer, a moving and storage company that offered, among other services, piano moving, a task Thom’s wife remembers him dreading.

Thom also was serving in the Idaho National Guard during this time. To his disappointment, the demands of police work required him to quit the Guard, which was not easy after more than six years of service.

Thom’s wife remembers how much he enjoyed walking his beat, which involved “rattling the doors,” police jargon referring to the duty of checking on local businesses closed for the night.

What he loved most about his job, however, was meeting and interacting with people in the community. Thom considered it an honor to protect Coeur d’Alene and its citizens.

“Thom was a police officer from the old school. When I say that, I mean he always treated people with great respect,” said Ron Edinger, a Coeur d’Alene city councilman who knew Thom for more than 40 years.

Thom’s career was marked by several highlights and distinctions. In 1980, he served as president of the Idaho Peace Officers Association. He was also one of the few motorcycle officers at that time and proudly led local parades astride a department-issued Harley-Davidson motorcycle.

During President Ronald Reagan’s California governorship, Reagan stayed in Coeur d’Alene for three days to aid the Republican Party’s fund-raising efforts. Thom escorted the governor day and night during his stay. Thom was proud to have served in that capacity and displayed the former president’s framed autographed photograph, on which Reagan wrote a brief note to Thom and his wife, in his home.

Thom also escorted Miss USA 1971 during her visit to Coeur d’Alene.

Thom was awarded 42 certificates of achievement, which acknowledged his dedication to police work and his many individual accomplishments as an officer. In August 1981, Thom was named Officer of the Month.

He never was really off-duty, and served as a model for others.

“It seemed that during every one of his vacations officers would either call him or stop by to ask him questions about what he would do (in a given situation),” said Laura Thom.

Thom’s daughter agreed, remembering how other officers under his command seemed to trust and respect how he handled various issues. When officers were not seeking Thom, he was seeking them. During his vacations, he would always set aside time to call or visit the police department to make certain all was well in “his town.”

“He was a straightforward, tell-it-like-it-was, but yet, understanding supervisor,” remembers Carl Bergh, a police officer who worked under Thom.

Thom helped with the department’s Explorer Scouts program, which helps local youths become civic-minded citizens, and also served as coordinator for the department’s police officer reserves before his retirement as captain in December 1985.

Yet, even after his retirement, Thom never wavered in his devotion and concern for Coeur d’Alene or the police department. Once or twice a week, Edinger visited Thom, and the two men would engage in friendly debate about council issues. If Thom disagreed with City Council decisions, he did not suppress his opinions but willingly offered them to Edinger.

“I’m really going to miss those talks,” said Edinger.

The need for medical insurance prompted Thom to seek a job as a bus driver for Coeur d’Alene School District 271, but his sincere interest in the children on his route kept him at his job for 12 years after his retirement from the police department. When one boy was failing all of his classes, the boy’s academic problems bothered Thom so much he would come home and think of ways the boy could be helped, his wife said.

Thom played as hard as he worked. His favorite recreational pursuits included fishing, hunting for pheasant, grouse and duck, camping along the Coeur d’Alene River, and trap and skeet shooting.

In 1963, Thom won a Field and Stream award for the biggest lake trout caught on 8-pound test line on Lake Pend Oreille. The fish weighed 44 pounds and was 3 feet, 5 inches long.

Thom was a life member of the Coeur d’Alene Skeet and Trap Shoot Club and also served as president. For most of the 30 years of his membership, Thom won High Scratch trophies, a testament to his skill at shooting clay pigeons. He averaged 23 out of 25 possible hits.

Thom was not proudest of the trophies he won, but of a trophy he created in the memory of one of his team members and friends, Dale Cornell. Around 1980, Thom began the tradition of awarding a trophy to beginning trap and skeet shooters. The Dale Cornell Trophy, awarded annually to the most improved junior shooter, ensured Cornell’s memory would not fade. The trophy is still awarded today.

When asked how they most want people to remember Thom, both his wife and daughter cite his desire to help people. They remember how, after every snowfall, Thom cleared all of his neighbors’ driveways and sidewalks. In warmer months, he mowed his neighbors’ grass adjacent to the alley.

“He always helped everybody – neighbors, family, kids in the community,” his wife recalled.

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Thom was how unremarkable he thought he was. “He really thought he was just an ordinary person living his life the way he thought it should be lived,” Laura Thom said.