As we begin our Founding Five series, we honor Richard “Dick” Waldo, whose steady leadership, careful stewardship and more than three decades of service helped transform a shared vision into the Correctional Peace Officers Foundation we know today.

Every organization has a beginning—a moment when an idea is entrusted to a small group of people willing to believe in what it could become.

For the Correctional Peace Officers Foundation, that beginning came in the early 1980s, when five correctional professionals joined together around a deeply important purpose: caring for the spouses and children of Correctional Officers and Corrections Staff who were killed or otherwise died in the line of duty.

Richard “Dick” Waldo was one of those five individuals.

Alongside Don Novey, Glenn Mueller, Larry Corby and Sal Osuna, Dick helped establish the foundation upon which CPOF has continued to grow. Their vision was ambitious, but its heart was simple: correctional professionals and their families should never have to face tragedy alone.

While four of the Founding Five worked as Correctional Officers at Folsom State Prison, Dick brought experience from another part of California’s correctional system. He was a Group Supervisor with the California Department of the Youth Authority at the Karl Holton School in Stockton. Though their positions and workplaces differed, the five men shared an understanding of the risks, sacrifices and responsibilities carried by those who serve within corrections.

Together, they chose to turn that understanding into action.

A Career Dedicated to Service

Dick began his correctional career in 1971 as a Group Supervisor at the Karl Holton School in Stockton, California. Over the course of more than 25 years of state service, he steadily advanced through the ranks and served in several assignments throughout the California Department of the Youth Authority.

His career included positions at Pine Grove Fire Camp in Pine Grove, the O.H. Close School in Stockton, CYA Headquarters and the Central Office of the Northern California Youth Center. He eventually attained the rank of Lieutenant before retiring in 1996.

Each of these assignments brought different responsibilities and challenges, giving Dick a broad understanding of the correctional profession and the people who dedicate their lives to it. His career was distinguished not only by advancement, but also by longevity, commitment and service.

Dick also served as a vice president of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, extending his commitment to advocating for and supporting correctional professionals beyond his daily institutional responsibilities.

Before beginning his correctional career, Dick served his country as a member of the United States Navy. Whether serving his country, his state, his community or the correctional profession, service remained a consistent thread throughout his life.

Turning a Vision Into a Foundation

Creating CPOF required far more than recognizing a need. The Founding Five had to take a compassionate idea and build an organization capable of carrying it forward.

There were meetings to hold, decisions to make, support to gather and countless practical matters to address. Establishing a nationally recognized nonprofit organization required persistence, patience and the assistance of many others who believed in the mission.

It took several years of work before the Correctional Peace Officers Foundation was officially recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. That recognition represented an important milestone, but the work of the Founding Five was only beginning.

Their vision was never limited to creating an organization on paper. They wanted to build something that could respond when a correctional family received the worst possible news—something strong enough to offer meaningful support during the most painful moments of their lives.

Dick helped provide the stability needed to make that possible.

As one of CPOF’s original Directors, he helped guide the organization through its formative years and remained deeply involved as it expanded beyond California to serve the national correctional community.

More Than 30 Years of Careful Stewardship

Dick served as Treasurer of CPOF for more than 30 years, providing consistent leadership throughout an extraordinary period of growth.

The role of Treasurer was an especially important responsibility for a young charitable organization. Every contribution represented someone’s trust in CPOF and its mission. Every decision affected the foundation’s ability to help correctional professionals and their families when they needed it most.

Dick’s long tenure provided continuity as CPOF developed from the vision of five correctional professionals into a nationwide organization. While programs expanded, membership grew and assistance reached families across the country, he remained one of the steady hands helping to protect the foundation’s future.

His contribution cannot be measured only by the title he held or the number of years he served. It can also be found in the organization’s endurance.

The compassion at the center of CPOF’s mission needed sound leadership behind it. Dick helped provide that leadership for more than three decades. His stewardship helped ensure that the foundation could continue honoring its commitments—not just to the families immediately before it, but also to those who would need CPOF in the years to come.

Glenn Mueller, fellow founder and longtime Chairman of CPOF, reflected upon Dick’s passing that he personally knew how much Dick had given to the foundation. Those who worked alongside him understood the time, care and dedication that his service required.

A Life Rooted in Family and Community

Dick’s commitment to serving others extended well beyond his professional life.

A longtime resident of Lodi, California, he was active in his community and a member of First United Methodist Church. He and his family had called the Lodi area home for more than 70 years.

Dick was also a husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather. He was survived by his wife, Ruth; his daughters, Tammi Truman and Karen Weber; his son, Richard Waldo; six grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; his niece, Rene Schulte; and a great-niece and great-nephew. He was preceded in death by his brother, Gordon Waldo.

Although CPOF remembers Dick as a founder, Director and longtime Treasurer, his family knew the person beyond those titles. They shared the years, moments and memories that made up a life of nearly 79 years.

That is especially meaningful to the story of CPOF. The organization Dick helped establish has always recognized that behind every correctional professional is a family sharing in the sacrifices of a demanding career. Family was not an abstract part of the foundation’s mission. It was the reason the mission existed.

A Legacy That Continues

Richard Ira Waldo passed away on June 15, 2018, in Lodi following complications from kidney failure. His passing was mourned throughout the CPOF family and the correctional community he had served for so many years.

Yet Dick’s influence did not end with his passing.

It lives on each time CPOF reaches out to the family of a fallen officer. It is present when financial assistance is delivered to a correctional professional facing a catastrophic illness, injury or personal crisis. It can be seen when survivors are welcomed into the CPOF family and reminded that their loved ones will always be remembered.

It lives within every act of support made possible by the organization he helped establish and sustain.

The five founders could not have known exactly what CPOF would become when they first gathered around their shared vision. They could not have anticipated every family the foundation would one day serve, every institution it would visit or every correctional professional who would become part of its nationwide family.

What they did know was that correctional families deserved support—and they were willing to do the work necessary to provide it.

Dick Waldo gave more than 30 years to that calling. His financial stewardship, institutional knowledge and steady presence helped CPOF move from its earliest days into a future that continues to carry the founders’ vision forward.

As we honor the Founding Five, we begin by remembering Richard “Dick” Waldo: United States Navy veteran, correctional professional, community member, husband, father, grandfather, founding Director and longtime Treasurer of the Correctional Peace Officers Foundation.

His was not simply a place in CPOF’s history. His service helped make that history possible.

Richard “Dick” Waldo
August 9, 1939–June 15, 2018

Do you have a memory, photograph or story about Dick Waldo and his service to the correctional community? We invite you to share it with CPOF as we preserve and celebrate the legacy of the Founding Five.