BLUE HILL, Maine — Physically imposing, gentle, legendary and respectful.
For many people — especially police officers who received training at the Maine Criminal Justice Academy in the 1970s and 1980s — those words were embodied by David A. Giroux.
Giroux, a former Maine state trooper and self-defense instructor at the academy, died July 9 of pancreatic cancer, according to an obituary published in the Bangor Daily News. He joined the state police in 1966 and retired in 1994. He was 67 years old.
“He probably is one of the most legendary state troopers in Maine,” Don Brown, an attorney and former police officer who lives in Bucksport, said Monday.
Brown recalled how, when he was at the academy in the late 1970s, the 6-foot-4-inch, 250-pound Giroux demonstrated martial arts moves on him. But as intimidating as Giroux could be, Brown said, he also had a good sense of humor.
“The last time I saw him [a few months ago], he told me to go shine my shoes,” Brown said.
According to Giroux’s obituary, a celebration of his life will be held for family and friends at 11 a.m. Saturday, July 23, in the George Stevens Academy gym in Blue Hill.
Steve Pickering, a retired state police detective, said he was a teenager living in the Blue Hill area when he first met Giroux, who regularly patrolled the area.
“When people think of the state police, they think of Dave Giroux,” Pickering said.
When Pickering was 16, he wrecked his father’s truck in an accident. Giroux responded to the crash. Pickering told Giroux that, even though the accident wasn’t his fault, he expected to get in big trouble with his father that evening when his parents returned from the Blue Hill Fair. Giroux assured him that wouldn’t happen.
“He drove to the fair, found my parents, and told them it wasn’t my fault,” Pickering said. “Even as a 16 year-old kid, I was pretty impressed by that.”
Allan Jamison, a former Maine State Police detective who now is head of court security at the Penobscot Judicial Center in Bangor, on Tuesday recalled growing up with Giroux in western Maine.
Jamison, from Mexico, said he played high school football against Giroux, who grew up in Rumford. Even then, he said, Giroux was made of “solid muscle.”
Jamison said, years later, he and Giroux were part of a state police squad that often got called to crowded and potentially violent situations.
In 1971, they were called to the Fraser Paper mill in Madawaska to disperse striking workers who were blocking a train from leaving the mill. Jamison, Giroux and a group of about eight other troopers started walking down the tracks to get about two dozen people out of the way, he said, when more than 100 additional angry striking workers appeared out of boxcars on an adjacent track.
The troopers started getting pelted with rocks and railroad spikes, he said, and had to retreat behind a nearby building. None of them were badly hurt, but it could have been worse without Giroux’s physical presence, he said.
“He was a big asset,” Jamison said.
Ralph Pinkham, emergency management director for Hancock County and a former lieutenant with Maine State Police, said Tuesday that Giroux is one of 24 former troopers officially named as a “Legendary Trooper” by Maine State Police. Giroux received the honor in 1998 for representing the “highest standards” of the state police and serving as a professional role model for all state troopers, Pinkham said.
With Giroux’s passing, only 10 former troopers who have received the honor are still alive, Pinkham said.
“I think there will be a huge gathering for [Giroux’s service],” he said.
State Rep. David Burns of Whiting, also a former state police trooper, said Tuesday that Giroux could play the part of a hard-nosed drill instructor at the academy or, when investigating abuse cases as a detective, could sit down on the floor and put a child at ease by playing with stuffed toys.
Burns and others said Giroux’s ability to connect with children was impressive, especially for someone his size.
“He was good at adapting to any situation,” Burns said.
Chief Deputy Richard Bishop of the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department, who joked he had “painful” experiences in Giroux’s self-defense lessons at the academy, said Giroux was “fair and compassionate.” The most distinctive thing about the lawman, he said, was his ability to talk to and relate to anyone, no matter their circumstances.
“When he talked to you, he listened,” Bishop said. “He was just a model of integrity.”
