Folder: S.F. Police-Policemen-Getchell, Byron.
Newscopy: "Inspector Byron Getchell, in retirement now, is drawing dividends on the services he had performed in his years as head of the police junior traffic patrol program--dividends, that is, in the form of young lives. Alexander Chan, 12, is typical of the many junior traffic officers trained under Inspector Getchell to guard the lives of his fellow students."
Newscopy: "Byron John Getchell is 68 and his wife, Neil, a little younger. It is therefore surprising to find on the shelves of their pleasantly odd-fashioned living room at 533 Brussels-st such books as 'The Bobbsey Twins,' 'An Old Fashioned Girl' and 'Heidi.' The explanation is simple, though-you don't have to have children of your own to like them. The Getchells have raised a niece, a grand-niece, and given haven to four children of a neighbor when their mother died. PERFECT RECORD. In addition, Inspector Jack Getchell has for 25 years been intimately associated with the annual crops of boys who volunteer to guard the 640 street crossings near the city's public and parochial schools. For the past 13 years he has headed the School Traffic Patrol. Since the patrol was founded a quarter-century ago not one school child has been killed at a patrol-guarded intersection. 'You just can't explain that,' Inspector Getchell himself admits. 'It's contrary to all the laws of chance. Why, kids have been killed at intersections guarded by policemen!' 'THEY'RE DIVIDENDS.' Nevertheless, explain it or not, there it is--and it is the chief among the dividends which life has paid Byron J. Getchell. Dividends is his own word. He uses it when he talks about the patrol boys who have grown up and made good in business, in the professions, in politics, and elsewhere. 'It's not a matter of names,' he said, 'although Don Fazackerley, the supervisor, and Charlie Meyers, the assemblyman, are names you'll recognize--it's a matter of good citizenship. 'I hear from them and about them all the time. They're my dividends.' Bob Warren, The News cameraman on this story, said, 'I remember I was supposed to march in a Patrol Boy parade at the Presidio one year. I fell and broke my arm instead.'
Newscopy (con't): (Dec. 19, 1952) "LIFE'S WORK--Inspector Byron Getchell, who died yesterday, is shown two years ago as he stood on a corner watching Alexander Chan holding back his schoolmates."