M. Duane Ailor, 58, retired police captain

Saturday, July 19, 1997

A memorial service for M. Duane Ailor, a recently retired Lewiston Police Department captain, will be at 11 a.m. Tuesday at Congregational Presbyterian Church at Lewiston. The Rev. John Williams will officiate.

Ailor, 58, died of cancer Thursday at his Lewiston home.

He was born May 5, 1939, at Moscow to Marvin R. and Phyllis E. Haynes Ailor. He graduated from Lewiston High School in 1957 and attended Washington State University and Lewis-Clark State College.

He married Beverley A. LeBert Sept. 12, 1959, at Lewiston.

From 1960 to 1963, Ailor worked for Potlatch Forests Inc. He then joined the Lewiston Police Department.

He received no field training or radio in 1963, and his beats were downtown and North Lewiston, armed with a gun, flashlight and nightstick.

"Lewiston was a hard-drinking, Wild West kind of town back then," Ailor said in a Jan. 16, 1997, interview in the Lewiston Morning Tribune.

In 1971 he became LPD's first narcotics officer and was sent to Washington, D.C., where he trained with the agency that later became the Drug Enforcement Administration.

He created the Turn In a Pusher (TIP) program in Lewiston and assisted many other police departments nationwide in establishing similar programs.

For most of his career he was a detective but spent his last years at the department as an administrator, including several stints as acting chief of police.

He retired Jan. 13, 1997, after fighting cancer for more than three years.

Ailor was a member of Congregational Presbyterian Church, the Idaho Peace Officers Association and the Bryden Canyon Golf Association. He enjoyed fishing, golfing and spending time with his family.

"What makes me proud when thinking back on my career is maybe in some small way I've contributed to making this community/valley a better, safer, more enjoyable place in which people can live a quality lifestyle," he wrote in a memoir of his career.

In 33 years of police work, he never had to fire his gun.

"Maybe I'm a sweet talker or maybe it's because I'm 6-feet-4 and 200-some pounds," he said in his interview with the Tribune. "It was fortunate I didn't have to use it."

Ailor is survived by his wife at their Lewiston home; his mother, Phyllis E. Bailey of Lewiston; one daughter, Tamara S. Riggs of Lewiston; one son, Bradley S. Ailor of Winchester; and three grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by infant twin daughters, Shawna and Shelly.

Memorials may be made to the M. Duane Ailor Law Enforcement Scholarship Fund, c/o: U.S. Bank, 1900 19th Ave., Lewiston, Idaho 83501.

Cremation will take place. Vassar-Rawls Funeral Home at Lewiston is in charge of arrangements.