Jep was the first policeman I ever personally knew. When he was an investigator in the early 1980's, we lived next door to him for a brief period. When my wife worked as a child abuse investigator here for DHR, he was one of the handful of police investigators who not only helped but protected my wife on many occasions. He retired from police work a few years back, but continued some special work for the D.A. part time. Widely known, he had a very raucous sense of humor and had a million stories, all of them funny. He was a special, special guy who thought highly of my wife. He never saw me without asking about her and our daughter. His son is an FBI agent. He is one of about four or five UT fans I know personally and still liked.
He was born and raised in Knoxville, a true Vol. My wife called me this morning in tears to tell me that she saw in the newspaper that he'd died. She called another investigator who she'd worked with from her days at DHR and he told her that Jep had had a third heart attack on Wednesday night. I knew he'd had some arrhythmia a few months back, but he never let on as if anything was that serious. Even his good friend didn't know until now that he'd had more than one previous heart attack. He wasn't the complaining type. He did more to protect people in Decatur, Alabama than a lot of officers will ever do. He was the real deal, and he was fair about it.
He leaves many, many friends in addition to his family. I'd appreciate your prayers for those he helped and those who loved him.
Human government bears the same relation to hell as the church bears to heaven. (David Lipscomb, On Civil Government, 72).
![[amer-ribbon90.gif]](/images/amer-ribbon90.gif "Remember our veterans and troops currently serving today.")
