Friends, colleagues say goodbye to IUPD sergeant

The IU Police Department said goodbye to one of its own Monday afternoon as a procession of squad cars with red and blue staccato beams reflecting off a damp pavement accentuated the wail of sirens and mourners. Across the street from police headquarters as Badge 24 went out of service for the last time, a line of black came to attention, their tears hitting harder than the rain falling from a gray sky and muddying the grass beneath them.\nIUPD Sgt. Timothy L. Lewis, 49, succumbed to cancer Thursday in Bloomington Hospital after a 10-month-long battle. Lewis, who fellow officers described as one who loved to be where the action was, worked a variety of positions within the department, from patrolman to administrative roles. He retired Oct. 27 as a uniformed sergeant.\nLewis spent eight years working as a sergeant in IUPD's Technical Services Department, where his duties also included working as a public information officer responsible for dealing with the press. His sense of humor was a blend of affectionate cynicism and led to a positive, yet cautious handling of the media.\nEvery summer IUPD runs a 16-week academy allowing IU students interested in a career in law enforcement the chance to earn college credit and become certified police officers. As part of a training exercise during the 2003 summer class, Lewis pepper sprayed an Indiana Daily Student reporter taking part in the academy who was trying to obtain background information on the department for a series of feature stories. \n"I'd always wanted to do that to a reporter, but being asked took all the fun out of it," Lewis later said of the incident.\nIUPD Lt. Jerry Minger worked side by side with Lewis as his supervisor for almost 10 years before Lewis transferred back to uniform during the summer of 2003.\n"Tim took his job seriously to a fault ... I don't think he ever saw himself away from the department," Minger said. "He integrated himself personally with it. It was hard to tell where the department ended and Tim began."\nSunday afternoon friends and family walked between the alabaster walls at Allen Funeral Home atop a red carpet worn away with the footsteps and stained with the tears of mourners come to say goodbye one last time. Those footsteps came from a University vice president, a U.S. Marshall and more than 100 other people. Of those mourners were two of the oncology nurses who took care of Lewis during his many long stints in room 4524 of Bloomington Hospital.\n"He never wanted to ask for anything. He was made happy by the smallest things," said nurse Jennifer Fresch. \nShe and medical tech Jennifer Waters said out of the 30 patients they've watched die, Lewis was the one they said they felt the closest too.\nAt his memorial service Monday at Cleercreek Christian Church, friends, family and coworkers said they struggled to talk about Lewis.\nFriends say Lewis was the type of guy who they knew was cool but didn't know how to praise him because he hid himself so often from others.\n"His praises are going to come where he's at now instead of where we are," said former colleague and Monroe County Commissioner Herb Kilmer.\n-- Contact staff writer Brandon S Morley at bmorley@indiana.edu.