Jack McKeon

On Feb. 13, 1973, when, as Jack McKeon would say, “the Dead Sea was just sick,” he was sworn in as an officer in the Rockville Centre Police Department. This New Year’s Eve, almost 37 years later, McKeon was set to retire after 19 years as commissioner — the longest tenure ever for a head of the RVCPD.

“It’s really the passing of an era,” said Mayor Mary Bossart. “And I know that, as I found for myself with [former] Mayor [Eugene] Murray, our incoming commissioner has really big shoes to fill. It’s very difficult to serve people for a long period of time and have the kind of regard and affection that Jack has earned.”

McKeon earned that affection through years of tireless work, friends and colleagues say —always expanding his horizons and never settling for second-best. “He’s the best administrator I’ve ever seen,” said his fellow officer and longtime friend Richard Fantry, who joined the village Police Department the same day McKeon did and planned to retire the same day as well. “I’m sure he’s the best one that job’s ever had. The guy spent his whole life working for one thing. He had no other hobbies, no distractions — even his Navy career was built around advancing his police career. When you focus like that, you’re bound to be successful.”

McKeon’s passion didn’t stop with Rockville Centre. While serving with the P.D., he had a 30-year military career as well — eight years with the Army, on active and reserve duty, and 22 years with the Navy, as a Naval Criminal Investigation Service agent. After the Sept. 11 attacks he was recalled to active duty and spent nine months in the Middle East, mostly in Bahrain but also in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

When McKeon joined the police in 1973, he had just been released from active duty in the Army and had only a high school education. He eventually earned associate’s, bachelor’s and master’s degrees, not to mention commercial truck driver’s and pilot’s licenses. He also attended the FBI National Academy, the FBI Academy for CEOs and the New York City Internal Affairs Academy, took basic and advanced criminal investigation courses and was trained in counter intelligence by the NCIS.