Even at retirement party, county sheriff’s Capt. Vic Ingram gives to community

After 34 years and one month with the Pittsylvania County Sheriff’s Office, Vic Ingram decided to celebrate his retirement a little differently than most.

“Traditionally, when a police officer retires someone plans a party and sets a cost per person, (but) I decided to cover the cost of the meal and give my friends the opportunity to help others by giving through me,” he said.

He also gave people the opportunity to donate to two organizations dear to his heart Friday night at Mt. Calvary Church in Axton.

“I have lost so many friends and family members to cancer I chose Danville Cancer Association, and I serve on the board,” he said. “We help many people locally and all the money donated stays in this area. The other organization is the Officer Down Memorial Page, which is a Web site dedicated to remembering officers who have been killed in the line of duty.

“I wanted to help those who are suffering with cancer and also to help assure that we never forgot the officers who have given their lives.”

Ingram filled the huge gym with more than 300 people. Food was everywhere. Two tables served chicken, ham, potatoes, corn, green beans and rolls, while pizza and lasagna weighed down another table for those in the mood for Italian.

Three large cakes were decorated with the emblems of the three organizations he had served.

“I started my law enforcement career in 1975,” Ingram said. “Then I joined the Air Force to be a fireman, but the Air Force made a policeman out of me. While in the Air Force, I worked for NASA at the Langley Research Center in security.”

After being discharged, Ingram went to work for the Hampton, Virginia Police Division.

Pittsylvania County beckoned, however.

“I moved back home and went to work for the Sheriff’s Office in 1979,” he said. “I was hired by the now-retired Sheriff Taylor McGregor. I started out as a field deputy, then promoted to criminal investigator in 1981, and then promoted to the rank of Captain in 2008.”

Ingram, 53, said he just knows that it’s time to move on.

He invited “everyone he knew” to the party and said the response was “great.”

Pittsylvania County Commonwealth Attorney David Grimes said, pointing to the crowd, “And these are just the people he didn’t arrest.”

Grimes recalled that Ingram was in uniform when he was just an assistant.

“He has provided a wonderful service to Pittsylvania County,” he said.

Ingram said he had too many memories to recall any specific ones, but he will leave with contentment if he knows he has helped anyone or made a difference in the community.

“This has been a most interesting job,” he said. “At times, you are the most needed and rejected and at other times, the most hated and the most loved.”

Pete Bailey, a detective with the Danville Police Department, said he has known Ingram since 1987.

“Vic is one of the easiest people to get along with I have ever seen in my life,” he said. “He is a true gentleman and a good guy.”

Doug Collins, who worked with Ingram for 18 years as an investigator, recalled one day early in his career when things didn’t go so well.

“We were responding to a robbery call on Goodyear Boulevard back when that was in the county, and we overturned the car on Craghead Street,” he said. “Mr. Ingram was driving.”

It sounds like Ingram will still find plenty to do, however, after his retirement is effective Jan. 1.

“I will have my private investigators license by then, so I plan on doing private investigations,” he said. “I am also a polygraph examiner, so I will do some private tests. And I will expand my part-time business where I teach driver improvement.

“So actually I’m just closing one chapter of my life and opening another.”

Ingram also plans on spending more time with his wife, Debbie; four children, Rick, Christie, Kelly Rae and Andrew; and four grandchildren.

Pittsylvania County Sheriff Mike Taylor called Ingram’s retirement “bittersweet” for him.

“We’ve worked together since the 1970s and grew up in the department together,” he said. “I’ll miss him, and that’s the best compliment I can give him. He is more than a co-worker. He’s a friend, and it’s hard to find those these days.”

As Ingram moved among the tables visiting and thanking people for coming, he found many friends and lots of hugs and handshakes, as well as several tables of relatives sharing the evening with him.

“I am so grateful for my career,” he said. “For the people that have touched my life, my family and friends for their love and support and for God’s continued blessings and protection.

“It’s been a great life and now it’s time to move on, but in my heart when I hear a siren I will still want to go. You never get police work out of your blood, it’s just part of who we are.”

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