Camden Police Chief Randy Gagne announced May 24 that Retired Camden Police Lieutenant Ralph Knowlton is the 2018 Memorial Day Parade Marshal.  What Ralph does not know is that this is actually going to take place! 

Through the help of his daughter, Donna, Ralph thinks he is coming over to Camden for the parade, which he is, but what he is not being told is he will be meeting with Chief Gagne and take his position as Marshal in the parades lead police cruiser.

Donna has assured us that Ralph does not normally read the online papers so keeping this little tidbit quiet and having no one spilling the proverbial beans shouldn’t be too hard.

Ralph has served his town and country with pride for many years. First he is a proud veteran of the US Navy and US Army, having left Camden at the age of 15 to join the military during World War II. Ralph ended up serving in both the Navy and Army during his tenure in the military serving in both World War II and Korea.  He was mustered aboard the USS Mattaponi on June 1, 1946. When Ralph’s military commitment was fulfilled he returned to Camden putting his military background to use by becoming a full time police officer with the Camden Police Department. 

Ralph rose through the ranks culminating in his promotion to Assistant Chief as a Lieutenant. Ralph served in that position until his retirement in 1990. He was also the interim Chief in 1988 and 1989 in which time he hired Chief Gagne as a patrol officer nearly 30 years ago.

Ralph continued working with the department during the time when movies were being made in Camden, working security protection on the sets of Thinner and Man Without a Face.  Ralph also served and worked many hours as a sworn reserve officer for the department.

When you see Ralph this Memorial Day, (But please not before!) make sure you do a shout out to him and thank him for his military service as a member of the Greatest Generation and also for his many years of duty to our fair town.