Pitchess Is Remembered for Both Toughness and Charm

Many may have known him as a tough taskmaster, a former FBI agent who came to personify professional law enforcement. But former Los Angeles County Sheriff Peter J. Pitchess was also a witty and charming rake who lived life to its fullest, said family and friends who gathered Thursday to pay their last respects to the longtime lawman.

Pitchess was 87 when he died Sunday at his Newport Beach home after a long illness.

Funeral services at St. Paul’s Greek Orthodox Church in Irvine were attended by hundreds of family, friends and fellow law enforcement officers from agencies throughout Southern California.

His mahogany casket was escorted by a seven-member honor guard of deputies to the church entrance, where Father Steven Tsichlis censed the coffin before the formal Greek Orthodox service.

He was eulogized by the cleric as a colorful and good man who had a long career and affected those around him in ways sometimes good and sometimes bad, but always as a forceful presence.

“When we first met, he said . . . ‘I have no regrets about my life. I have led a full and complete life.’ ”

Current Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca spoke emotionally about Pitchess, whom he visited shortly before his death.

“He not only had wit and charm, but great humor,” he said.

Baca spoke of his last visit with Pitchess, saying they discussed their love of law enforcement. They agreed that something must be planned to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Sheriff’s Department.

Baca then told him that he wanted a float in next year’s Rose Parade and he wanted Pitchess to ride on it.

Pitchess, he said with a cracking voice, had the “enthusiasm of a young man, the mind of a very young man and the spirit of a fighter.” The Tournament of Roses committee approved the float, he said, and he will ride on it and Pitchess will be there in spirit.

Retired Undersheriff of Orange County Raul Ramos said he came to know and respect Pitchess nearly 40 years ago.

“While his health deteriorated, his mind never gave out,” said Ramos. “He was inquisitive about what was happening in law enforcement and I kept him up to date. He amazed me many times with his perspective of the emerging issues of our time. And he never stopped caring for his own department.”

It was no surprise to his friends that Pitchess was laid to rest to the lilting lyrics of the Frank Sinatra standard “My Way,” a proclamation of independent living.

“That he wanted it sung at his funeral says something about who he was,” his grandson Peter Pitchess 2nd said during a service before burial at Pacific View Memorial Park in Newport Beach.

Pitchess said his grandfather always had a humorous streak. During his days as a law student at the University of Utah, he and his friends were always at odds with the engineering students. It was Pitchess who got the idea to kidnap the engineering class’ recently crowned beauty queen.

“It was a prank, but when they took her across state lines, no one thought it was so funny anymore,” he said to laughter.

Others recognized the stubborn streak in his grandfather.

“President Nixon told me at the dedication of his library that grandpa was one of the greatest fighters he ever saw,” said Pitchess.

And his grandfather’s strong personality could provoke equally strong reactions from others.

“Not everyone agreed with the way he did things,” Pitchess said. After one open-heart surgery, doctors had to repeat the procedure. “There was talk among the deputies that they had to go back in because they couldn’t find a heart.”

But what his grandson remembered most was his grandfather’s great love of his family. The younger Pitchess said there was never an important occasion in his life that his grandfather failed to attend. And both family and friends spoke of his love for his wife of 61 years, Athena.

“He had a great life; it was a good run,” said Pitchess.

His remarks were followed by an honor guard firing three shots. A single bugle played taps as five helicopters from the Sheriff’s Department air unit flew overhead.