Sartell Police Chief Jim Hughes was not the least bit surprised at the many hundreds of people who paid their respects to Jerry O’Driscoll at his funeral last Saturday at St. Francis Xavier Church.

Jeramiah “Jerry” O’Driscoll, Sartell’s long-time former police chief, died Jan. 30 at the age of 75 after a 10-week battle with cancer.

It was Chief O’Driscoll who hired Hughes as a police officer for the city back in 1991. Hughes had grown up in West Concord in southeastern Minnesota.

At the visitation before O’Driscoll’s funeral, Hughes, who was the official representative for the Sartell Police Department, conversed with a long line of residents and non-residents who came to pay their respects.

O’Driscoll had served as Sartell’s police chief for 30 years, hired in 1963 and retiring in 1993.

“He was a good guy,” Hughes said. “He was outgoing, honest and knew everybody.”

O’Driscoll was a friendly, small-town kind of police officer because more than 40 years ago, when he started working in Sartell, the city was indeed a “town” then, with not much more than a couple thousand people, at most, living there. It was expected at that time that a police chief would get to know just about every citizen, many of them on a first-name basis. And that is what O’Driscoll did.

Those who knew him best remarked about his dedication, his kindness and his willingness always to go the extra mile to help someone in need. He also had a deep concern for youth and wanted to help keep them on a good path. O’Driscoll began the DARE program in Sartell, which educated children in schools about the dangers of drug-and-alcohol use.

O’Driscoll was born on March 20, 1936 in Waite Park, the son of Kevin and Hilda (Weiler) O’Driscoll. He graduated from Tech High School in St. Cloud and joined the U.S. Army, serving from 1955-57 in Germany as a military police officer. After his discharge from the service, O’Driscoll was hired by the Stearns County Sheriff’s Department and also worked as a correctional officer at the St. Cloud Reformatory (as the prison was then known). Besides being a police officer, O’Driscoll was also a part-time real-estate broker and co-owner of Jeramiah’s Cafe in Sartell.

In 1963, the year he was hired as Sartell police chief, O’Driscoll married Joyce Fouquette at St. Augustine’s Church in East St. Cloud. They had three sons – Tim, John and Jay. Tim, now a state representative for District 14A, is a former Sartell City Council member and Sartell mayor.

In their retirement years, Jerry and Joyce O’Driscoll lived on Pearl Lake, near Kimball. He loved fishing, traveling, doing projects in his at-home shop and visiting with his children and grandchildren. He and Joyce, long-time members of St. Francis Xavier Church in Sartell, were in their later years members of Holy Cross Catholic Church near Pearl Lake.

O’Driscoll was a member of the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association, the Stearns County Police Chiefs Association, the Paul Bunyan Police Officers Association, American Legion Post 277 in Sartell, VFW Post 428 in St. Cloud and Eagles Aerie 622 in St. Cloud.

O’Driscoll died peacefully, surrounded by his family at the St. Cloud Veterans Administration Medical Center.
He is survived by wife, Joyce; sons Tim of Sartell; John (Lynn) of Woodbury; Jay (Stephanie) of Lutz, Fla.; grandchildren Grayson, Erin, Megan, Olivia and Jack O’Driscoll; and siblings Kathleen (Henry) Heying of St. Cloud; Larry (Joan) O’Driscoll of St. Cloud and Mary Ellen (Clarence) Butkowski of Waite Park. He was preceded in death by three brothers – Dennis, Patrick and William.

O’Driscoll was buried, with full military honors, in the St. Francis Xavier Cemetery.