CAPE ELIZABETH – Close to 100 people are expected to gather Friday to celebrate and honor Allen Westberry Sr., a retired longtime police officer who died unexpectedly on Monday. He was 70.

Mr. Westberry joined the Cape Elizabeth Police Department in 1975 and worked as a patrolman for 31 years. Police Chief Neil Williams said Wednesday that Mr. Westberry enjoyed patrolling the town, stopping at businesses to find out what their needs were and how the department could assist them.

“Al served this community well,” Williams said.

Mr. Westberry graduated from South Portland High School in 1960 and entered the Air Force. He served as a military policeman, got discharged in 1968 and joined the South Portland Police Department.

Mr. Westberry retired from the Cape Elizabeth Police Department in 2006.

Police officers are expected to attend his wake Friday at the Hobbs Funeral Home in Scarborough and his funeral Saturday at the South Portland Church of the Nazarene.

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For the past three years, Mr. Westberry worked as a custodian for the Cape Elizabeth School Department, assigned to the Donald L. Richards Community Pool and Cape Elizabeth’s middle and high schools.

He also was the union representative for the school department’s custodians and bus drivers.

His former supervisor, Janet Hoskin, director of community services, said Wednesday that he was well known and respected throughout the town.

“I’m flabbergasted,” Hoskin said of his passing. “It seems like it happened so quickly. He was close to many of the custodians in the district. Many of them are really struggling with the news of his loss.”

Mr. Westberry was admitted to Maine Medical Center in Portland on March 3 after his health declined sharply. He had pneumonia and it turned septic, sending poisons into his bloodstream, said his daughter, Janene Westberry of Norway.

She said her father went into cardiac arrest and his kidneys stopped working.

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Mr. Westberry showed signs of improvement last weekend. He celebrated his 70th birthday on Sunday. But on Monday, his doctors told the family there was nothing more they could do.

“It was horrifying to hear,” his daughter said. “None of us thought we would be planning his funeral.”

Mr. Westberry leaves four children from his first marriage, to Mary Jane Campbell of Portland. He leaves three stepchildren from his second marriage and three stepchildren from his last relationship, with Sally O’Malley, who died in June.

He was remembered by his family Wednesday as a good father and an avid outdoorsman who had a passion for hunting, fishing and camping.

“He was an awesome guy,” his daughter said. “He did anything he could for his children. He was always there for me. He always said I was his little girl.”

 

Staff Writer Melanie Creamer can be contacted at 791-6361 or at mcreamer@pressherald.com

 


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