Published in Lawrence Journal-World
June 30, 2008
Services for Lt. David Kent Dillon, 44, Eudora, will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday at Grace Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Lawrence. Burial with law enforcement honors will be in Washington Creek Church Cemetery in rural Douglas County. Lt. Dillon died Saturday, June 28, 2008, in an accident as he was riding his bicycle on a rural road near Eudora. He was born Feb. 18, 1964, in Topeka, the son of John and Joyce Dillon.
He was raised on a dairy farm at Lone Star Lake. He attended Wakarusa Valley School and South Junior High School. He graduated from Lawrence High School in 1982. He joined the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office in 1982 as a corrections officer and rose to the rank of lieutenant. During his tenure, he was an instructor of the D.A.R.E. program and was involved in the start-up and opening of the new county jail in 1999. At the time of his death, he held the assignment of Corrections Operations for the Douglas County Jail.
Survivors include his parents, of Overbrook; two daughters, Meghan and Molly, both of Olathe; two brothers, a twin, Douglas and wife Tracey, Lawrence, and Jeffrey and Jose
David Dillon
Herrera of San Francisco; a grandmother, Leora Woodruff, Overbrook; three aunts, Jackie Flory, Lawrence, Yvonne Heinen and husband Larry, Andover, and Marsha McKee and husband Jim, Pelzer, S.C.; an uncle, Douglas Garst and wife Julie, Harker Heights, Texas; and nephews Austin and Cameron Dillon.Lt. Dillon was married to Suzie Zinn, mother of his daughters, and Monica Zylstra, of Phoenix.
The family will receive friends from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Grace Evangelical Presbyterian Church.The family request memorials to the David K. Dillon Memorial Fund at Corner Bank, 4621 W. Sixth St., Lawrence, KS 66046. Funds will be used for a Douglas County Memorial and Law Enforcement Scholarship Fund.Rumsey-Yost Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
Sheriff’s deputy killed in auto accident
By Erin Castaneda & Sophia Maines
June 28, 2008, 4:02 p.m. Updated June 29, 2008, 12:00 a.m.
Lawrence Journal-World
Douglas County Sheriff’s Office released a statement about the death of Lt. David K. Dillon, 44, a deputy for the department’s Jail Operations. Dillon was off-duty and riding his bicycle shortly before 8 a.m. in the 1900 block of North 1400 Road, just one mile west of Eudora.
According to a Kansas Highway Patrol accident report, Dillon was riding west on the road when a 20-year-old Eudora man driving a 2003 Oldsmobile struck him from behind, causing Dillon to fall into the north ditch of the road.
The 20-year-old driver was listed on the KHP accident report as Kyle William Van Meter.
“This is a tragic day for our office as Lt. Dillon was well-liked and well-respected professionally by our officers and those he worked with so diligently in the corrections field across the United States,” wrote Lt. Kari Wempe, sheriff’s spokeswoman, in the release. “Our hearts are heavy. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and his friends and, too, which each of our officers who were privileged to work with Lt. Dillon. He will be greatly missed.”
Douglas County Commission Chairman Bob Johnson said Dillon’s death was a tragedy.
“I knew him as a young and very promising officer in the sheriff’s department and a highly regarded deputy as well as administrator,” he said. “It’s truly a tragedy for his family and certainly a loss for the sheriff’s department and community.”
Arrangements with Rumsey-Yost Funeral Home are pending.
The highway patrol continues to investigate the accident.