On Friday, a large contingent of law enforcement officers, firefighters, EMS personnel and others gathered inside the Kershaw County Sheriff’s Office (KCSO) training room in Lugoff to wish a happy retirement to K.J. Lewis. Lewis served as a chaplain to the KCSO, Camden Police Department (CPD), Camden Fire Department (CPD), Lugoff Fire-Rescue (LF-R), Kershaw County Fire Service (KCFS), Kershaw County Emergency Medical Services (EMS), the Kershaw County Coroner’s Office and other local agencies for about 25 years.
He and his wife, Debbi, who joined him in offering those services during recent years, have decided it’s time to step back and enjoy life, especially with a new “baby” in the family in the form of a new puppy.
The lunchtime gathering, which included hamburgers and hot-dogs cooked up by the LF-R, along with a cake and other treats, featured the presentation of four plaques of appreciation, starting with CFD Chief Eddie Gardner.
“K.J., you and I go back quite some years. I’m not going to even say how many because I don’t know,” Gardner said.
“Quite some decades,” Lewis quipped, to which Gardner agreed.
“You’ve been faithful to the Camden Fire Department. You’ve been a friend to me through the years, and I had the pleasure of serving on your board for a short time. So, congratulations on your retirement and know that we are there if you ever need anything … you will be missed,” Gardner said as he handed the first of the congratulatory plaques to Lewis.
Next up: LF-R Chief Chris Spitzer.
“I know when I met K.J. — I met K.J. on Dec. 7, 1998, because Dec. 6, 1998, was the worst day of my life, continues to be the worst day of my life and back then, we didn’t even know what counseling was,” Spitzer said. “He has been such a great friend, he’s been a mentor. He was one of the only folks that usually come in my office who doesn’t fall asleep when they’re sitting in my chair and talking to me. We love you, brother, and you have always been there for us, and you have meant so much to us. There were a lot of times when we didn’t even have to call upon you, but there were so many times when you showed up and we needed you, but we didn’t know it.”
When he handed the LF-R’s plaque to Lewis, Spitzer read it, including something he said every LF-R member — and many other first responders — carry with them: “John 15:13, Greater love hath no man than one who is willing to lay his life down for his friends.” Spitzer said many in the room have been put in such situations, including Lewis.
“K.J. served many, many years in law enforcement and, of course, in his chaplaincy,” he pointed out, and told Lewis now that he was older he had permission to fall asleep in his chair.
CPD Lt. Penny Lloyd had Debbi Lewis come up to join her husband when she presented her agencies plaque. Lloyd noted she has only been in law enforcement 15 years, making her the “baby” among those honoring K.J. Lewis.
“I still remember the day I started, as a civilian first at the department and I met Chaplain K.J. Lewis right off the bat,” Lloyd said. “He helped me through some of the transitions I went through and, over the years, I’ve come in and he was in the police car. He was riding with the officers, and he was just good counsel. When we needed somebody on helping a victim get through something, he was just good counsel. And then, I’ve got to be honest, we were super excited for a while there because it wasn’t too long ago — Miss Debbi was going to be able to join the ranks and we got her in and she started riding with some of our female officers … and it was wonderful. We were looking so forward to the dynamic duo, but we totally understand, especially with the new baby puppy, about retiring.”
With that, Lloyd handed the Lewises the CPD’s plaque for the “chaplains who always had our six.”
Although he could not attend, former CPD Chief Joe Floyd told the C-I about how Lewis became the department’s chaplain.
“K.J. came sometime after I did,” Floyd, who became chief in 1998, said during a telephone call. “I’d been in Camden for just a few months when I was told that I had a visitor up front who wanted a few minutes of my time, and he said, ‘I want to talk to you about the possibility of a chaplaincy program in the department.’ So, we sat and two hours later, he left my office as the Camden Police Department’s chaplain. I was that impressed with him and felt in that short time frame, that I had gotten to know who he was and what his mission would be for our department.”
An example of that need soon came along in July 2000 when CPD Cpl. Eddie Catoe died after his patrol car struck a truck that had entered the intersection of Old Georgetown Road West and Robinson Town Road in the Cassatt area after it had run a stop sign. Catoe’s K-9 partner was also injured.
“(Lewis) was our chaplain at that point in time, and he was certainly busy, not just for that, but for many, many, many other events. He was available to all of the staff, civilian and sworn officers on a confidential basis. He and I had an undertsanding that his conversations with them would be private except in a life or death situation,” Floyd said.
Like other agencies were, and still are, the CPD was working under great amounts of stress with long working hours, Floyd said.
“The fact that K.J. was a former Columbia police officer gave him a complete understanding of the difficulties that Camden police officers faced each day,” the former chief said. “It gave him a level of credibility and confidence from the officers that allowed him to be very effective in doing his job as a chaplain/counselor. And for so many years, he has fulfilled that position to such a degree that the sheriff’s office chose to have him provide those services to the deputies as well. I’m not aware of a single individual who’s had more of an impact to the public safety community than K.J. Lewis, he deserves thanks from so many people who’ll we’ll never know why because of the nature of how he went about doing what he did.”
Between Lloyd’s presentation and one by Kershaw County Sheriff Lee Boan, Lewis had a few things to say.
“It was my privilege; I love you all,” Lewis told Lloyd of serving the CPD. “I think that in public safety, who we are and who we serve is far beyond anything I’ve ever experienced. I tried the corporate world and got out of it as quick as I could. I love you all. Thank you. I’m not going to disappear, but I’ll probably be lazy.”
Boan said one of Lewis’ great characteristics is caring about everyone at an agency, from the line officers up to the top.
“When he comes around, he checks on you, checks on the people and stuff, and as a leader of the department, you always tell, ‘OK, K.J., this deputy’s having this issue, and this deputy’s having that issue.’ I remember when I was at the Camden Police Department and you sat down with me and said, ‘Hey, what’s going on? What can I help you with?’ So we started going through all of that, telling him what everything’s going on, and K.J. stopped (me) and said, ‘How are you doing?’ I’d never had anybody ask me that, how was I doing. K.J. cared about everybody, but he also cared about the leadership at the department, too, when we’re not even caring about ourselves and we got going on. K.J. had that mindset; he’s here for everybody.”
Boan said that became a lesson to him that leaders have to take care of themselves in order to help out their people.
Again, after being handed the KCSO’s plaque, Lewis had a little more to say.
“People who are not in the public safety community don’t understand what they’re missing,” he said, “but everybody can’t be in it, couldn’t handle it, so it’s a privilege to be a part of it. We love you all, and I’m not going to be making the rounds very much, but I’m not going to be a stranger. There’s never been a dull moment and there’s never been a time when I questioned what career I chose.”
Boan ended the ceremony by presenting K.J. and Debbi Lewis with KCSO coins. The Lewises then spent a good bit of time with the deputies, officers, firefighters, EMS personnel and others who had come to wish them a happy retirement.
