Retired Columbia County Sheriff Proper dies
Paul J. Proper, Columbia County’s sheriff in the late 1970s and through the 1980s, was a man worth following, the current sheriff said this week as he remembered the lawman.
Proper, who was also a deputy, undersheriff and investigator, died Thursday evening at age 88, Sheriff David Bartlett said in a statement.
Proper began his career with the department in 1961 working on the road patrol, then became sheriff in 1977, serving three terms before retiring. He also served as a firefighter for the Copake Fire District for more than 50 years, Bartlett said.
“Sheriff Proper hired me in
1984 and took the chance in a young man becoming a police officer,” Bartlett in the statement.
“Through my 34 year career, I have strived to follow in his footsteps” he added. “He was a man of honor, integrity, and always served his community.”
Proper, a Republican, was 58 in early 1989 when he announced he would not seek another term and retire for health reasons. He had suffered a heart attack the previous September.
In an interview with a Times Union reporter when he announced his decision, Proper reflected on his decades in the sheriff’s department, noting how police work in the county had changed.
“When I started a few years ago, (we) never had a robbery. If I had a burglary it was done by someone down the road,” he said in the interview. “Now it’s getting to be professionals.”
He said the job and its erratic schedule had taken its greatest toll on his family and he’d often missed holiday celebrations.
He said his most significant accomplishments included success in convincing the county Board of Supervisors to build the public safety facility.
Asked almost 30 years ago what the most pressing law enforcement issue facing the county was, he didn’t pause. “Drugs. We’re growing,” he said.