Robert R. Dempsey

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. _ Robert Dempsey, a World War II veteran who served as a top law enforcement official in New York and Miami and helped modernize the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in the 1980s, passed away peacefully Monday morning, Feb. 26.

Dempsey died in Tallahassee following a brief illness. He was 92.

While law enforcement was his career, he was a devoted family man, lovingly referred to as ‘Papa’ by his grandchildren. When he was appointed FDLE commissioner in 1982, Dempsey said he wanted to be seen as “a family man and committed, professional police administrator -- in that order.”

When he returned from his service with the Navy, he went to night school to earn his high school diploma and then joined the New York City Police Department. With the GI bill, he earned an accounting degree from New York University in 1954 and a law degree from St. John’s University School of Law in 1961. He also received a master’s degree in public administration from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in 1971.

Dempsey began his law enforcement career in 1951 with the New York City Police Department, earning the rank of lieutenant and moving up to director of the department’s legal division. He left in 1972 to become director of the Dade County Public Safety Department’s legal division in Miami and was promoted to the agency’s assistant director in 1978.

His leadership during riots that roiled Miami’s Liberty City in 1980 caught the attention of then-Gov. Bob Graham. In September 1982, Graham named Dempsey FDLE commissioner and he served until March 1988 when he resigned so he and wife, Catherine, could be with their son Jimmy in New York, who was battling cancer.

Under his leadership at FDLE, Dempsey helped the state implement the Integrated Approach to Combating Organized Crime, working with other state agencies to seize felons’ business assets through civil lawsuits and to press criminal prosecutions.

In an unprecedented investigation at the time in the 1980s, FDLE worked with the IRS and the Florida Department of Revenue for 16 months probing companies suspected of stealing up to $200 million in state gas taxes. Operation Tiger Tail resulted in dozens of arrests and the guilty plea of reputed mobster Michael Franzese, identified by authorities as a member of the Colombo crime family.

Other FDLE investigations under Dempsey’s leadership led to indictments in the mid-1980s of dozens of people charged with smuggling more than $2 billion worth of cocaine. Another six-month investigation in the late 1980s busted up a booking ring in South Florida linked to two organized crime families.

He also established the FDLE’s Missing Children’s Clearinghouse, the nation’s first 24-hour hotline for reporting missing children.

His innovative and outstanding leadership in Florida’s criminal justice community was apparent statewide to the many local, state and federal agency partners. However, his lasting impact was also great within the department. His legacy includes his lasting influence on the team of men and women who served as members of FDLE.

His leadership focused on building a values-based, professional organization that operated on what he believed to be the agency’s most valuable asset -- the members of FDLE. He instituted a formal and comprehensive recognition program that still exists today, which identifies and rewards those who meet high standards of exemplary performance. This program recognized not only investigators, but also an array of hundreds of forensic, technical, administrative and support personnel. He valued and loved the entire team.

Dempsey served as president of the Florida Association of Police Attorneys, the Florida Bar’s Law Enforcement Programs Committee, and as a member of the International Association of Police Chiefs Legislation and Criminal Law Procedure Committee. He also served as technical adviser for the television drama N.Y.P.D. in the late 1960s. The show was one of the early police series based on actual cases.

A few years after leaving FDLE, he and his wife moved from Tallahassee to a 15-acre farm in Greensboro, Florida, where they hosted many family gatherings and tended the land. Always up for an adventure, the couple traveled extensively, driving across Alaska, touring Europe and visiting family in New York, Seattle, Atlanta and Florida.

They moved back to South Florida in the mid-1990s to be closer to family. For their children and grandkids, family gatherings, annual ski trips, and weekend barbecues by the pool made lasting memories. They were deeply involved with their grandchildren’s activities as they had been with their children.

Born Jan. 4, 1926 in New York City’s impoverished lower east side, Dempsey became determined to build a better life for himself. He enlisted in the Navy at age 16 during World War II and served on the USS Denebola. In one of the more compelling family reunions during the war, he was granted leave to meet his father and brother, who were also serving in the Navy and all three happened to be the same region in the Pacific.

Shortly after returning from the service, he married his teenage sweetheart, Catherine Giglinto, and they started a family that would grow to five sons and a daughter and eight grandchildren. To celebrate 50 years of marriage, he and his wife renewed their vows before dozens of family and friends at a black-tie affair in Orlando, Florida.

A true self-made man, Dempsey loved his family and put them before everything else. He was known to fix anything, and handle everything. He was a gentleman who opened doors, held out chairs and stood when a lady entered the room. He believed in hard work and commitment. He lived his life on his own terms with honesty, integrity and personal responsibility. He loved learning and could quote poetry and prose at will. He earned success but never forgot where he came from. He was generous. He valued his children and grandchildren as his greatest accomplishment. He never asked anyone for anything and lived his life without complaint. He often said how lucky he was and what a wonderful life he had had.

Dempsey was married 55 years to his beloved wife Catherine, who died in 2002. They had six children: Robert L. Dempsey who died in 1985; Gerard Dempsey (wife Joan); James Dempsey (wife Margaret); Brian Dempsey (wife Linda); Lorraine Yeomans (husband Adam) and Louis Dempsey (wife Lily). He is also survived by eight grandchildren: Alison Dempsey, Robert T. Dempsey, Cole Yeomans, Emma Dempsey, Matthew Yeomans, Grace Dempsey, Catherine Yeomans and Leah Dempsey. He is survived by his wife Barbara Jorgenson, whom he married in 2009.

A visitation will be held at 5:00 PM on Thursday, March 1, 2018 at Culley’s MeadowWood Funeral Home, 1737 Riggins Road, Tallahassee. A funeral service will follow beginning at 6:00 PM. Burial will be at 2:00 PM, Saturday, March 3, 2018 at Hollywood Memorial Gardens, Hollywood, Florida.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranches in memory of Robert Dempsey at

https://www.youthranches.org/ways-to-give/online-donation