Samuel T. "Tom" Kohr, 65, of Harrisburg passed away Wednesday March 5, 2003, at home.
He was a retired Harrisburg City Police Detective, with 36 years of service, a member of Pine Street Presbyterian Church, Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #12, member of Harrisburg YMCA, a graduate of William Penn High School, a veteran of the United States Marine Corps and also retired from the former Eckard Drug Store at 29th Street, Harrisburg.
He enjoyed serving the people and the City of Harrisburg as a police officer and a friend. He enjoyed playing cards with his family and friends and was an avid tennis player, Philly and Eagles fan and baseball card collector.
He helped work security for City Island events, to include the baseball card aution for United Cerebral Palsy of the Capitol Area, farm show events and the Senators baseball games.
He also enjoyed coaching Teener League Baseball.
Surviving are his loving wife of 46 years, Georgia L. Rohrbach Kohr; his son, Samuel T. "Tom" Kohr, Jr., of Linglestown; two daughters, Kim M. Geesaman of Carlisle and Leeann M. Geesaman at home; a sister Brenda A. Pickett of Enola; his grandson, David T. Geesaman of Carlisle; two aunts Anna Demmey and Ginnie Chiara, both of Harrisburg; several cousins; a brother-in-law, Ron Rohrbach of Carlisle; sisters-in-law, Sherry and husband, Ken Deibler of Grantville, Linda and husband, Bill Still, Deb and husband, Donnie Boyer and Jan Donmoyer,all of Enola; 17 nieces and nephews; 31 great nieces and nephews and a great great nephew. He was preceded in death by his parents and sister, Samuel H. and Mary L. Fleming Kohr and Ginnie Lee McCollum.
Services will be held at 11a.m. Monday, March 10, 2003 in his church, 310 N. 3rd Street, Harrisburg. Burial will be in Blue Ridge Memorial Gardens, Lower Paxton Twp.Viewing times will be from 6 to 9 p.m., Sunday in the Neumyer Funeral Home, Inc., 1334 N. 2nd Street, and 10 to 11 a.m. Monday in the Gathering Place of his church.
[Patriot News - March 7, 2003]
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Samuel T. "Tom" Kohr, a streetwise Harrisburg police detective whose respect for others earned him tips from people he helped put behind bars, has died after a long bout with cancer, Mayor Stephen R. Reed said.
Kohr, who retired from the city force in 2001 after 36 years as a police officer, died late Tuesday or early yesterday at his home after battling cancer that was diagnosed soon after his retirement, Reed said.
With his rumpled suits, gruff manner and penchant for calling everyone "boss," Kohr seemed the typical movie or TV detective. But he was an "extraordinary investigator" whose childhood spent in the city's working-class uptown section helped him gain the trust of those he arrested, Reed said.
Kohr claimed his greatest success was solving, along with his partner, Detective Kevin Duffin, the murders of two women, one beaten and thrown from a vehicle on State Street, the other stabbed and strangled in the woods in southern Harrisburg.
The deaths of Kim Granison in 1994 and Stephanie Gray Brown in 1996 had gone unsolved for years before Kohr and Duffin collected enough evidence to charge Barry Kirkland, who Kohr had coached in youth baseball. In 2000, Kirkland was convicted by a jury of killing Granison, and pleaded guilty to killing Brown.
"He brought a passion to the job that reflected the greatest ideals of protecting the public safety -- and he had a clear sense of moral values," Reed said.
Kohr often bought lunch for poor men and women who wandered into The Spot, a Harrisburg restaurant near the police station where the detective frequently ate breakfast. He never lectured, though he never gave them money for booze. It had to go toward food.
Every June, he volunteered to guard baseball collectibles sold at a City Island auction to raise money for United Cerebral Palsy of the Capital Area.
"He just loved people," said Billy Kaldes, owner of The Spot and a longtime friend of Kohr's. "He loved Harrisburg, and loved being the way he was."
Kohr's philosophy about his job as a cop was also his philosophy on life: "You got to give respect to gain it," he said in a 2001 interview with The Patriot-News after his retirement.
He often said it to Duffin, his partner for 11 years. "One thing he taught me was, 'Treat people the way you'd want to be treated,'" Duffin said. "He'd say, 'I don't care if they're a criminal or not.'"
Even some of the criminals he arrested liked him. One serial robber would call the police station from prison once a week to chat with Kohr.
"The guy would ask Tom how he was doing, the works," Duffin said. "I said, 'How do you put a guy away for 11 years, and he calls you once a week?' He said, 'Duffin, just be real with them. They're a human being, too.'"
Kohr was assigned to big investigations because of his rapport with people, Reed said.
"If you had a difficult case to crack, he would be assigned to it for that reason," he said. "He was a person who knew every nook, cranny, alley and neighborhood in the city. When you talk about community policing, he personified that."
Kohr, an avid baseball card collector and tennis player, was an excellent jitterbug dancer who was always running to watch his weight, Kaldes said. But soon after his retirement at the age of 63, he was diagnosed with cancer, and after a period of feeling good, his health deteriorated, Reed said.
Nine months after his retirement, Reed named the lobby of the Walnut Street police station after Kohr. After the mayor unveiled a bronze plaque declaring the room the Kohr Plaza and Lobby, before a crowd of family, police officers, attorneys and judges, Kohr dabbed his tearing eyes with a handkerchief.
"I'll never ever forget this, for as long as I live," he said.
[Patriot News - March 6, 2003]
Samuel T. "Tom" Kohr, 65, of Harrisburg passed away Wednesday March 5, 2003, at home.
He was a retired Harrisburg City Police Detective, with 36 years of service, a member of Pine Street Presbyterian Church, Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #12, member of Harrisburg YMCA, a graduate of William Penn High School, a veteran of the United States Marine Corps and also retired from the former Eckard Drug Store at 29th Street, Harrisburg.
He enjoyed serving the people and the City of Harrisburg as a police officer and a friend. He enjoyed playing cards with his family and friends and was an avid tennis player, Philly and Eagles fan and baseball card collector.
He helped work security for City Island events, to include the baseball card aution for United Cerebral Palsy of the Capitol Area, farm show events and the Senators baseball games.
He also enjoyed coaching Teener League Baseball.
Surviving are his loving wife of 46 years, Georgia L. Rohrbach Kohr; his son, Samuel T. "Tom" Kohr, Jr., of Linglestown; two daughters, Kim M. Geesaman of Carlisle and Leeann M. Geesaman at home; a sister Brenda A. Pickett of Enola; his grandson, David T. Geesaman of Carlisle; two aunts Anna Demmey and Ginnie Chiara, both of Harrisburg; several cousins; a brother-in-law, Ron Rohrbach of Carlisle; sisters-in-law, Sherry and husband, Ken Deibler of Grantville, Linda and husband, Bill Still, Deb and husband, Donnie Boyer and Jan Donmoyer,all of Enola; 17 nieces and nephews; 31 great nieces and nephews and a great great nephew. He was preceded in death by his parents and sister, Samuel H. and Mary L. Fleming Kohr and Ginnie Lee McCollum.
Services will be held at 11a.m. Monday, March 10, 2003 in his church, 310 N. 3rd Street, Harrisburg. Burial will be in Blue Ridge Memorial Gardens, Lower Paxton Twp.Viewing times will be from 6 to 9 p.m., Sunday in the Neumyer Funeral Home, Inc., 1334 N. 2nd Street, and 10 to 11 a.m. Monday in the Gathering Place of his church.
[Patriot News - March 7, 2003]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Samuel T. "Tom" Kohr, a streetwise Harrisburg police detective whose respect for others earned him tips from people he helped put behind bars, has died after a long bout with cancer, Mayor Stephen R. Reed said.
Kohr, who retired from the city force in 2001 after 36 years as a police officer, died late Tuesday or early yesterday at his home after battling cancer that was diagnosed soon after his retirement, Reed said.
With his rumpled suits, gruff manner and penchant for calling everyone "boss," Kohr seemed the typical movie or TV detective. But he was an "extraordinary investigator" whose childhood spent in the city's working-class uptown section helped him gain the trust of those he arrested, Reed said.
Kohr claimed his greatest success was solving, along with his partner, Detective Kevin Duffin, the murders of two women, one beaten and thrown from a vehicle on State Street, the other stabbed and strangled in the woods in southern Harrisburg.
The deaths of Kim Granison in 1994 and Stephanie Gray Brown in 1996 had gone unsolved for years before Kohr and Duffin collected enough evidence to charge Barry Kirkland, who Kohr had coached in youth baseball. In 2000, Kirkland was convicted by a jury of killing Granison, and pleaded guilty to killing Brown.
"He brought a passion to the job that reflected the greatest ideals of protecting the public safety -- and he had a clear sense of moral values," Reed said.
Kohr often bought lunch for poor men and women who wandered into The Spot, a Harrisburg restaurant near the police station where the detective frequently ate breakfast. He never lectured, though he never gave them money for booze. It had to go toward food.
Every June, he volunteered to guard baseball collectibles sold at a City Island auction to raise money for United Cerebral Palsy of the Capital Area.
"He just loved people," said Billy Kaldes, owner of The Spot and a longtime friend of Kohr's. "He loved Harrisburg, and loved being the way he was."
Kohr's philosophy about his job as a cop was also his philosophy on life: "You got to give respect to gain it," he said in a 2001 interview with The Patriot-News after his retirement.
He often said it to Duffin, his partner for 11 years. "One thing he taught me was, 'Treat people the way you'd want to be treated,'" Duffin said. "He'd say, 'I don't care if they're a criminal or not.'"
Even some of the criminals he arrested liked him. One serial robber would call the police station from prison once a week to chat with Kohr.
"The guy would ask Tom how he was doing, the works," Duffin said. "I said, 'How do you put a guy away for 11 years, and he calls you once a week?' He said, 'Duffin, just be real with them. They're a human being, too.'"
Kohr was assigned to big investigations because of his rapport with people, Reed said.
"If you had a difficult case to crack, he would be assigned to it for that reason," he said. "He was a person who knew every nook, cranny, alley and neighborhood in the city. When you talk about community policing, he personified that."
Kohr, an avid baseball card collector and tennis player, was an excellent jitterbug dancer who was always running to watch his weight, Kaldes said. But soon after his retirement at the age of 63, he was diagnosed with cancer, and after a period of feeling good, his health deteriorated, Reed said.
Nine months after his retirement, Reed named the lobby of the Walnut Street police station after Kohr. After the mayor unveiled a bronze plaque declaring the room the Kohr Plaza and Lobby, before a crowd of family, police officers, attorneys and judges, Kohr dabbed his tearing eyes with a handkerchief.
"I'll never ever forget this, for as long as I live," he said.
[Patriot News - March 6, 2003]
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