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Longtime Chase County Sheriff Rich Dorneker retired Thursday.

Photographs and certificates line a table at the Swope Park community building Thursday afternoon.

Longtime Chase County Sheriff Rich Dorneker retired Thursday.

Photographs and certificates line a table at the Swope Park community building Thursday afternoon.

Rich Dorneker retired as the Chase County Sheriff Thursday afternoon, capping off the end of a long career in law enforcement.

“I never expected this,” he said during a well-attended reception held in his honor at the Swope Park community building. “I was sort of, this was my retirement day and I was going to step out the way. But, between my wife, and the county attorney’s office, they put this on for me.”

Dorneker first joined the sheriff’s office in 1995 and spent 17 years as sheriff. In a small community, that sort of thing doesn’t go unnoticed. He was humbled by the “fantastic turnout” Thursday afternoon.

“I’ve made a lot of friends over the past years,” he said. “I just worked hard with the kids and it seems like I made more and more friends as the years went by. That’s the hardest part to leave.”

Dorneker credited a strong staff in the sheriff’s office and adjoining dispatch center for his successes over the years.

“I would never ask any of my staff to do something that I wouldn’t do myself,” he said. “If the fire department was shorthanded, we would jump on trucks. That’s just what we did. Is it our job? No, but this is our community.”

The Chase County Commission honored Dorneker during its Wednesday meeting, agreeing to a request to retired his badge number — 802. It was something that Dorneker had done for his predecessor, the late Gerald Ingalls.

“I had that number for so long,” Dorneker said. “It seems like that’s something that I can take with me.”

A number of Dorneker’s colleagues from neighboring counties were among the well-wishers at Thursday’s reception. Lyon County Sheriff Jeff Cope was among those that said he would miss serving with Dorneker in a professional capacity.

“He’s been a good member of the Chase County community and the law enforcement community as a whole,” Cope said. “He was a Kansas sheriff, and there’s 140 of us. It’s a good partnership. It’s a brotherhood and a sisterhood between officers, so I wanted to come over and support him and congratulate him.”

County Attorney Bill Halvorsen said has worked with Dorneker for almost as long as Dorneker had been in the county.

“You know, you always hear the good stuff when people retire, but in this case it’s really true,” said County Attorney Bill Halvorsen. “He’s definitely had a lot of support from the community. I was with him on the campaign trail and people would come up to him and ask him for yard signs.”

Dorneker said he would be taking some time to get acclimated to retirement, and looked forward to spending more time with his family.

“I’m just looking forward to what the next chapter in my life brings,” he said.

As for his advice for Jacob Welsh? Well, Dorneker said the new sheriff will need to take time to figure out how he likes to do things.

“It’s like dropping a bomb because I’ve done this for 17 years,” Dorneker said. “I just got into my way of doing things, and that’s how it’s going to be for him. It’ll take him some time to get situated.”

"You know, you always hear the good stuff when people retire, but in this case it's really true."

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