DELAWARE, Ohio - When Ronald F. "Doc" Wilson is buried this morning, county Prosecutor W. Duncan Whitney will help carry him to his grave.
Fifty years ago, Wilson drove then-newborn Whitney home from the hospital in a hearse.
Wilson, 93, died Tuesday night. Services will be at 10:30 a.m. today in DeVore Funeral Home, Rt. 3, Sunbury.
Until his retirement in June, Wilson kept order in Delaware County Common Pleas Court as a part-time bailiff for 23 years.
Whitney, Common Pleas Judge Henry Shaw Jr. and bailiff Phil Longshore, a longtime friend, will be pallbearers.
Wilson became a bailiff after he operated a funeral home in Sunbury and later was an embalming fluid salesman.
In the courthouse yesterday, co-workers told and retold favorite "Doc" stories.
Longshore said Wilson always knew whether a defendant was guilty. "He said he could tell by the way the guy moved his foot (when he sat at the defense table). A lot of foot movement meant he was guilty."
One of Wilson's primary duties as bailiff was to be a liaison between jurors and the court. "He was deeply kind to people," Shaw said. "He took great pains to make sure jurors were comfortable. It was always funny to watch him help the lady jurors with their coats."
He would have their coats stacked and ready to go when it was time to leave, said Barb Ruoff, Shaw's secretary. No one could leave until he helped them. "He was insistent about it."
"I remember (as a boy) going squirrel hunting with him," Whitney said. "Doc was always impatient. He wanted to get going. So he thought the faster he cooked the bacon, the faster it would get done. He'd turn it on high. He always burnt the bacon."
Wilson was rarely seen without a hat and never without a necktie and a cigar.
Assistant Prosecutor Sue Ann Reulbach recalled a time when Wilson was sitting in the grand jury room smoking one of his trademark black cigars.
"Smoke started coming off his shirt. He literally set himself on fire and just patted it out," she said. "He was a pip."
His friends suspect Wilson will be laid to rest with a cigar.