gordon dibble

In the time the world has gone from rotary phones to smartphones, and the nation has gone from Nixon to Trump, and Adam-12 and Kojak on network TV to viewers streaming Fargo and True Detective, Gordon Dibble has lived out a career in law enforcement.

Not much has changed in 43 years, though.

Dibble said the thrill for cops is still in catching the bad guys.

"Well, you know, the best part about it, and it sounds funny, but we all get in this job to catch the bad guys," Dibble said during his retirement party Friday at the Sheriff's Office. "That's really what we're here for. So, so many times you know who's done the crime. You can't prove it. You can't get them. And that's the most frustrating part.

"But when you're actually involved in catching one of them, physically catching them, like you chase them and you know it is somebody who you know did something wrong, and you know you know, and you get to chase them and maybe physically catch them, I think that was one of the more rewarding things that a guy (in law enforcement) will do."

Dibble feels fortunate to spent his entire career with the Genesee County Sheriff's Office.

He was hired Jan. 6, 1973, by then-Sheriff Roy Wullich, who was six days into his new job, making Dibble his first hire. Dibble, who spent four years in Chicago going to college and getting a degree in corrections, was assigned -- like all new deputies then -- to the jail. After a year, he was transferred to road patrol. After five years on the road, he became the juvenile officer. Then, in 1996, he was put in charge of road patrol with the title of chief deputy.

For a lot of people who work in law enforcement, they call it a career after 21 years. That's how long Dibble headed up road patrol after already putting 22 years in the Sheriff's Office.

"I think that people in this line of work," Dibble said, "they're either the 20-and-out type of people and they're going to maybe go do something different or you're here, you know it, and maybe hopefully become the sheriff or the undersheriff or whatever. You know I think that those are pretty common tracks.

"I was lucky," Dibble added. "I mean, I got different things to do and not everybody gets to do that. There are a lot of great people here that don't get those opportunities because it's just a small department."

Dibble said he was also lucky to work in the kind of job where you never know what your workday is going to be like when you show up at the office. Every day is different and unpredictable. That made 43 years go by fast.

"I know when I worked in factories that clock never moved on a wall," Dibble said. "But this job, you know, days went by, weeks, and months went by, years went by like nothing," repeating with emphasis, "like nothing."

During his farewell speech, Dibble said he felt lucky to work with a lot of good people, not just in the Sheriff's Office, but with Batavia PD, Le Roy PD, State Police, the County Legislature, and other agencies that interact with local law enforcement, and even the local media.

"That's why small towns are great," Dibble said. "Everybody knows everybody and we all want to get the job done."

At the end of our interview, asked if there was anything else he wanted to add, Dibble came back to the theme that he shared during the interview and his farewell speech, how lucky he has been.

"I'm very lucky that I've worked for a great department," he said before taking a long pause, " ... with some really good people. Like I said, I'm a lucky guy. That's all."

Jail Superintendent William Zipfel, Undersheriff Gregory Walker, retired Chief Deputy Gordon Dibble, Sheriff William Sheron, Chief Deputy Jerome Brewster.

The incoming chief deputy of road patrol, Joseph Graff, and Gordan Dibble have fun changing name plates on Dibble's old office.