A new state of the art surveillance system covering the entire campus is one of the many changes retiring Campus Police Officer Rob Leonard has seen in his 20 years at Kansas City Kansas Community College. (KCKCC photo by Alan Hoskins)

   For the last 20 years, Rob Leonard has been an integral part of security on the campus of Kansas City Kansas Community College. Only Chief of Campus Police Greg Schneider has been there longer.

   “The evolution of the department has come a long ways and Rob has been a part of that,” Schneider says of Leonard, who will be retiring Jan. 31 and honored at a reception on Monday, Jan. 30, from 1 to 3 p.m. in Room 2325.

   “When I started, we were just a security staff,” Leonard said. “We were not armed and for a while we even wore suit coats. But under Greg Schneider’s leadership, everything has really turned around and I’m as proud of it as I can be.”

   The biggest change has been the making of the department into a full-fledged Campus Police Department. Officers are now armed and uniformed and a state-of-the-art surveillance system enables them to keep an eye on virtually every office, classroom, hallway and entrance on campus.

   But Campus Police is much more than equipment. In the case of officers Leonard and Bob Tesch, it meant saving a life and earning both a Red Cross Life Saving Award.

   “Greg had just got us CPR certified training and we got a call of a man down on the walking track,” Leonard vividly remembered. “I gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and Bob shocked him back to life with a defibrillator. That’s probably the biggest thing in my life, to say I helped bring someone back to life.”

   “It happened just about six weeks after we had mandatory training on the new defibrillators so it was an investment that paid off almost immediately,” Schneider said.

   Although people probably did not know it, Leonard was a familiar sight around KCK as "McGruff the Crime Dog" in the late '70s and early '80s.

   “It started when I was at Shawnee Mission Medical Center. I’d dress up as McGruff and present a program on 'Stranger Danger' to schools and child care centers. We would talk to the kids on what to do when a stranger approached and make fingerprint cards for the kids.”

   A Kansas City, Kan., native who attended Junction Elementary School before graduating from Turner High School in 1967, Leonard got married right out of high school and went to work for the Public Works Department in Merriam. Summoned into the Navy in 1968, he would serve the next 4½ years as a boatswain on the U.S. Lexington training carrier and the U.S. Franklin D. Roosevelt in the Mediterranean.

   When he was discharged, Leonard returned to Merriam Public Works and added part-time police work to his duties, part-time work that eventually led to a full-time position – and an AA degree in law enforcement from KCKCC.

   “Had it not been for (KCKCC instructors) Ben Hayes and Loren Taylor, I would never have made it,” Leonard said of earning his degree.

   “My father, Elmer Leonard, was a postal clerk who worked part-time for the Burnes Security Agency and I always respected him for that. And I also decided that security was not a bad thing because you were helping people.”

   After 8½ years in Merriam, Leonard spent the next 15 years as a security guard and supervisor for the Shawnee Mission Medical Center. When a merger with St. Luke’s eliminated the need of a security supervisor, Leonard retired and came to KCKCC Nov. 16, 1992.

   “When I came there was just me, Greg, Jim Goss, Lyle Ramsey, Chuck Ambler and one other,” Leonard said. Now there are 15 full-time and 20 part-time officers and a history of one of the safest campuses anywhere. “It’s very well patrolled and taken care of and considering changes within the environment, we’ve did a good job of keeping up with the changing times – a lot of changes and all for the better.”

   That wasn’t always the case, however.

   “I had a bad attitude but guys like Jim Goss, Greg, Nick Perica, Jerry Reid and others really helped me out,” Leonard said. “There were times Rob didn’t always buy into something but in the end, he always did,” agreed Schneider. “I can say he has the biggest heart of anyone I know, kind, caring, will do anything to help anyone else. I’m just glad he’s still young enough to fully enjoy life with his wife and daughter.”

   Leonard and his wife of 44 years, Sharlene, have two daughters, Robbyn Alexander who lives in California, and Autumn Terry, who lives in Lee’s Summit and has a 9-year –old daughter. “She’s the light of our life,” Leonard said. “We spend as much time as we can.”

   In addition to spending time with his granddaughter, Leonard plans to use his retirement to catch up on a lot of “honey dos” around the house and go a little easier on two artificial knees.

   “It’s an honor to have worked at the college, been a student here and got to know all the people I’ve got to know but it’s time to lighten the load,” he said.