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Former Shippensburg police chief dies at 72
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Mike Lynch served as a Shippensburg police officer for 35 years and was chief of the department from 1979 to 1992. (submitted photo)
Mike Lynch — remembered as a Marine, police chief, father, staunch Republican and loyal friend and co-worker — died in Shippensburg Wednesday night at the age of 72.
Lynch, a Shippensburg police officer for 35 years and chief of the department from 1979 to 1992, suffered a stroke in March 2006 and was confined to the Shippensburg Health Care Center since then.
Lynch is recalled in glowing terms by his peers, especially former police officers he commanded and worked beside.
His son, Mike Jr., however, sums up much of his father’s legacy when he says, “He loved people, he loved to play poker and he taught me a lot about life.”
Lynch shares childhood memories and his father’s lengthy illness with equal clarity.
He recalls “cops and friends” parading through the family’s home at any hour to take turns at a 30-cup coffee urn during his teen years.
“It was interesting growing up in the 1970s with a cop for a dad and cops in and out of the house all the time,” Lynch says.
Other vivid memories include Christmas, poker games and cookouts.
“One thing he did every year, and I’ll never forget this, is work on Christmas Day,” Lynch says. “He’d bring the police car home and park it, then spend the day with us, but be ready to go if anything happened. That way the other guys on the force with kids could be with their families.”
Firm, loyal
By the time he was a teenager, young Lynch had seen a few inside straights and a flush or two.
“Dad loved poker,” he says. “If he wasn’t working, there would be a big game Friday night, then a cookout Saturday and another game all night Saturday.”
Not everything was fun and games.
“My brother and I knew when Dad was joking and when he was serious, and when he was serious you did what he said,” Lynch says.
While his father was “firm” with his children, he was sometimes a soft touch for other young people, Lynch says.
“Dad was a people person, He knew people had bad times and made bad decisions, People still come up to me today and tell me my father stopped them when they were drunk and told them to sleep it off and not move the car. They got breaks. I never did.”
Cruel fate
The lingering illness was pyschologically troubling for the elder Lynch and his sickbed visitors, in his son’s opinion.
Left unable to speak by the stroke was a cruel fate for a man who thrived on conversation.
“He really tried to talk, but he just couldn’t do it,” Lynch says of his father. “But I believe he understood every word that you said to him up until the last week.”
Evelyn Angle says she visited Lynch after his stroke but went less often after a troubling visit.
She recalls visiting Lynch and asking him if he knew who she was.
“He said, ‘Yes, you’re Dick,’ and began to cry,” she says.
Angle’s husband, Dick, died four years ago. Until then, he was Lynch’s “best buddy.” Angle served as assistant police chief during Lynch’s tenure as chief and the two were inseparable.
Dick Killinger, another retired Shippensburg officer, says he was never quite sure if Lynch recognized him when he visited the nursing home.
“He’d say he knew you, but he’d never say your name. What made me think he knew what was going on is that he was a former Marine and he always wanted to watch war movies on television.”
High regard
Officers who worked with Lynch hold him in high esteem.
Bob Van Scyoc, still a part-time officer in Shippensburg, says, “He was a good chief, very compassionate with his men and well liked by all the guys.”
Other former cops echo that assessment.
Terry Kennedy says Shippensburg police officers looked to Lynch for leadership and assistance.
“Mike always took care of us,” Kennedy says. “If you were in a police situation or just screwed something up, Mike could always tell you how to handle it.”
Kennedy looks back with some humor on an incident in 1977 that involved a man with a gun and a hostage.
“I was first on the scene and called for back up,” Kennedy says. “Mike came down the alley to help, and the first thing he said was, ‘Are you sure it’s a gun?”
Kennedy says he had been close enough to get a good look at the weapon — maybe a better look than he wanted.
“I said, ‘Yeah, it’s a gun, and it’s a damn big gun.””
The situation was resolved without injury.
Kennedy also recalls horsing around one time when Shippensburg still had a local emergency dispatcher.
“We were horsing around, and I threw something and knocked a hole in a wall. I called Mike and he told me to just say I tripped and dropped something that knocked the hole in the wall.”
‘Had their backs’
Former Shippensburg Mayor and Borough Councilman Lee Hockersmith says that’s the kind of loyalty you could expect from Lynch.
Hockersmith was mayor when Lynch was hired as police chief.
“He was always honest and up front with me,” Hockersmith says, “but you knew he was always there for his men. He supported them and had their backs. That’s as it should have been.”
Galen Asper, a supervisor in Shippensburg Township and a Republic Party activist, says Lynch was a fixture at party functions.
“I can see him now, cooking and passing out food at the Republican picnics,” Asper says.
Tina Weaver, Lynch’s girlfriend for more than 11 years, says she’s comforted by the knowledge that he is now at rest.
Weaver says she knew Lynch for many years but didn’t get close to him until later in their lives.
Attracted to him because of his “good looks and personality,” Weaver says she soon learned how friendly and outgoing her beau was.
She says his illness was very difficult for him.
“He was very friendly, very outgoing, involved in the community and the VFW,” Weaver says. “Not being able to talk was very hard for him.”
