Found peace on April 23, 2019. He was a devoted husband to Margaret Ann (nee Wagenknecht). Beloved son of Betty June (nee Sevester), preceded in death by his father, Erwin P. Loving father of Matthew R (Margaret Irene), and Jennifer E. Brother to Dale P (Diana). Proud grandfather to Xander, Marcus and Connor. Further survived by many other relatives and friends.
Darryl loved baseball and played competitively in high school as a pitcher and continued in the sport as an adult. His son and grandsons carry on his love of baseball today. His son is currently a coach on two of his grandsons' teams. Darryl was a page in Washington D.C. while he was in high school. It gave him a valuable insight into the workings of our political system. Darryl graduated from Don Bosco High school, and decided to continue in a career centered around law enforcement. His father was a 25 year veteran of the Milwaukee Police Dept. and his grandfather worked for many years as a dispatcher with the Milwaukee Police Dept. Darryl earned a 2 year degree in law enforcement from MATC. When Darryl met his wife, Margaret (Marge) both he and Marge had just started their law enforcement careers. He with the Greenfield Police Dept. and her with the Greendale Police Dept. Those first years of marriage and working on neighboring police departments would prove both challenging and rewarding and always very interesting. Starting a family was something both of them wanted and when they had their first child, they decided to commit fully to raising him and then a daughter a few years later. Marge and Darryl decided to leave the police work to just Darryl. Because of his involvement with and love for dogs, Darryl decided to approach his then Chief of Police to possibly start a K-9 unit within the police dept. Darryl had purchased a dog, a chocolate Labrador retriever, Della, with that purpose in mind. Della finished her narcotics training at Southern Police Canine in South Carolina. The owner, Mark Mills, has since supplied many police K-9s to many police depts. in this area. Darryl and Della proved to be an excellent working team and at one point they worked on a DEA task force operating out of Downtown Milwaukee. They became a very important asset to both the DEA and the Greenfield Police Dept. When his work with the task force came to an end, he came back to the police dept. and was promoted to patrol Lieutenant in charge of the K-9 unit, which had grown by two more dogs who were trained in officer protection, tracking and evidence search. All of the dogs and their handlers trained on a regular schedule and Darryl made sure that they were kept in shape for all of their duties. They also trained on a regular basis with other police K-9 units from surrounding police departments. Darryl and Della retired together on 7-1-01. Darryl's 30 years on the Greenfield Police Department was not enough. He subsequently went to work with the Capitol Police Dept. where he handled a trained police K-9 bomb dog, named Ivan. They searched the Governor's mansion, the UW stadium before every footfall game and performed many other services. Darryl and Ivan also worked at the State Fair Park, usually during the State Fair but also for other functions as well throughout the year. Not to remain idle during his subsequent years in retirement he also started his own business, Northstar Detection Specialties LLC. He offered his narcotics detection K-9 drug sniffing services to private and corporate entities like the MPS system. His partners, Kyra, Bentley and Neenah proved invaluable in this endeavor. Darryl had a dream to retire to their home on Neenah Creek, in Marquette County. He used this house as a getaway on weekends and occasionally a week at a time. However, the thought of being so far away from his family and friends was always a deterrent to residing there full time.
Darryl will always be fondly remembered in our hearts and missed deeply by his family and friends.
Visitation at St. Mary Catholic Faith Community Church, 9520 W. Forest Home Ave., Hales Corners, WI 53130. on Saturday, May 11th, from 10:30am to 12:15pm with mass at 12:30pm.