In 1962, John F. Kennedy was president of the United States and Elvis was still King. At Duke, the Women's College was still separate from Trinity College and no black students were enrolled at the University.
That same year, now-Maj. Robert Dean, DUPD's criminal investigations commander, minority relations and community affairs commander and spokesperson, joined the Duke University Police Department.
Today--41 years later--Dean, is retiring, leaving behind a legacy of dedication and improved relations with the student body.
Over the past four decades, one of Dean's main focuses has been on improving the police department's relationship with students and with the University community as a whole. Particularly in the last few years, he has started to concentrate on improvements between the Duke police, students and employees.
"I felt I needed to come up with some way to reach students to get them to see [what] we are responsible for and how we go about those duties," he explained. "I [wanted] to find students representative of the community and sit down and discuss concerns and issues as they relate to the Duke police."
The group he compiled included students representing, among other groups, Duke Student Government, the Intra-Fraternity Council, Mi Gente, the Black Student Alliance and gay students on campus. They met over lunch to discuss issues and concerns, and Dean often brought police officers from the force, both to participate with the group and listen to the students' worries.
"I really felt like that went a long way toward improving the relationship between students and the Duke police," he said. "I really took great pride in bringing that together." He organized a similar group for employees, he added, and that too fostered dialogue between staff and the police.
This goal of improving DUPD's relationship with the rest of the University has earned him many fans among the administration. Dean of Students Sue Wasiolek, who has worked with Dean for over two decades, called him "one of the good guys."
"He's taken complaints from students against the police department very seriously," she said. "He's always wanted to make certain that student-police relations were very positive and productive, so he's been very committed to fully investigating complaints and to resolving them."
Although Dean's work has ranged from interacting with the media--he's the one who writes the crime reports that become The Chronicle's crime briefs--to investigating murders, suicides, rapes and robberies, he has been able to maintain a positive attitude, especially about the changes he has seen at the University.
"Since I've been here, there has been construction work going on just about the whole time, which means Duke has not stopped trying to expand, we're still growing in a very positive way," he said. "As it relates to police work, there haven't been a lot of changes, just that students today seem to be a little bit more irresponsible in relation to protecting their property."
The biggest challenge he has faced, Dean said, is keeping the campus safe while simultaneously encouraging members of the University community to take an active role in their own safety by taking preventative measures.
Dean's commitment over the years has profoundly impacted the DUPD, Chief Clarence Birkhead said. "As a role model, I think Major Dean's dedication is second to none," he said. "If younger officers, or officers who have observed him over the past 40 years, walked away with the sense of dedication and pride that Major Dean has, they would be a much better officer."
Lieutenant Davis Trimmer, who is DUPD's supervisor for criminal investigations and who will take over many of Dean's duties until his successor is appointed, said Dean has given him advice about just about every aspect of his work, from conducting investigations to being a supervisor.
"The one most important thing he's taught me would probably be how to better interact with people outside the department," Trimmer said. "You have to deal with the public, the press, parents [and] administrators at the University. In how to deal with those kinds of people, his instruction has been very valuable."
Birkhead said Dean's replacement had not yet been named and that he would most likely divide the responsibilities Dean balanced so well between a couple of officers. And where will Dean be?
"Maybe traveling, part time work, fishing, just sitting around doing nothing," Dean said. "That's something I'm not used to."
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