With the conclusion of our Founding Five series, Legacy Friday begins a new chapter—honoring the leaders who carried the founders’ vision forward. We begin with Edgar “Ed” Winfield Barcliff Jr., a trailblazing Correction Officer, longtime National Director and Vice Chairman whose warmth, leadership and more than three decades of service helped shape the CPOF family.

The Correctional Peace Officers Foundation began with five correctional professionals in California, but its promise was never intended to stop at California’s borders.

For CPOF to become a national organization, it needed leaders who understood that correctional professionals in every state shared many of the same risks, sacrifices and responsibilities. It needed people who could carry the founders’ vision into new communities, build relationships and help families understand that they were part of something larger.

Edgar “Ed” Winfield Barcliff Jr. was one of those leaders.

Ed became involved with CPOF in 1990, the same year the Foundation held its first PROJECT 2000 gathering. In 1992, he joined the Board of Directors and began approximately 30 years of continuous Board service. As a National Director and Vice Chairman, he helped guide CPOF through decades of growth and remained actively involved until his final days.

Yet titles and dates alone cannot explain what Ed brought to the Foundation.

He never met a stranger.

He had a cool smile and an easy way about him that allowed people to feel comfortable almost immediately. He was kind but direct, warm but steady, and able to communicate strength without losing compassion.

At every PROJECT 2000, Ed made it a point to visit the Kids Room.

He did not stop in because it appeared on an itinerary or because someone expected a Board member to make an appearance. He went because he wanted to see the children, share in their fun and become part of their journey.

That simple, consistent act reflected the heart of his leadership.

Ed understood that CPOF’s mission was not carried out only in meetings, votes or financial decisions. It was carried out through presence—by showing up, sitting with families and making sure children who had experienced profound loss knew they were seen, valued and still surrounded by people who cared.

A Life Rooted in Newark

Edgar Winfield Barcliff Jr. was born on July 30, 1944, in Newark, New Jersey, to Edgar Sr. and Helen Barcliff.

The oldest of three children, Ed grew up with his sisters, Sandra and Diane. His life was grounded in family, faith and the Newark community he would later serve professionally and personally.

Ed was baptized at an early age at Mt. Zion Baptist Church, where he remained active for many years. He attended Arts High School and later graduated from Central Evening High School, part of a Newark Public School education that helped shape his connection to the city.

Even before entering corrections, Ed understood the importance of community service. He knew that helping others—particularly those who needed someone willing to stand beside them—would be central to his life.

In the 1960s, he began serving as a young cadet. After successfully completing the examination process, he became an Essex County Correction Officer in 1970.

The decision began a correctional career that would span more than three decades.

Beginning at the Essex County Jail

Ed was assigned to the Essex County Jail’s Main Jail in Newark.

Correctional work requires qualities that are not always visible to those outside the profession: alertness, judgment, patience, integrity and the ability to remain composed when circumstances change without warning.

Ed brought those qualities to his work.

He also brought an understanding of people.

He could be personable without losing authority and direct without diminishing someone’s dignity. His ability to connect with others did not make him less effective as an officer. It strengthened his leadership.

Over the years, Ed earned the respect of his colleagues, supervisors and the broader law-enforcement community.

In 1986, he became the first Correction Officer in Essex County to receive the Officer of the Year Award.

His recognition then extended beyond New Jersey. Ed became the first Correction Officer from the state to receive national recognition as one of the top five Correction Officers in the country.

For a profession that has too often remained outside the public spotlight, that distinction carried special meaning.

Ed’s recognition demonstrated that excellence in corrections deserved to be seen and celebrated nationally. It elevated not only one officer, but also the profession he represented.

These accomplishments were later entered into the official record of the United States House of Representatives when Congressman Donald M. Payne Jr. honored Ed’s life and service following his passing. The congressional tribute recognized the breadth of Ed’s correctional, community and national service.

Integrity and Accountability

Ed continued advancing his education and professional abilities throughout his career.

In 1990, he completed a basic training course for investigators through the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice Academy. After completing that training, he was appointed as an Investigator with the Internal Affairs Bureau.

Internal Affairs work demands exceptional integrity.

An investigator must be willing to seek the truth, protect the rights of everyone involved and hold members of the profession accountable to its standards. It is work that can be difficult, sensitive and deeply consequential.

Ed was trusted with that responsibility.

In 1996, he was promoted to Sergeant and became a Supervisor within the Internal Affairs Division at the same jail where he had begun his career as a Correction Officer.

His progression from the Main Jail’s officer ranks to supervising Internal Affairs reflected more than advancement. It demonstrated the confidence others placed in his judgment, fairness and leadership.

Ed understood that supporting correctional professionals also meant protecting the integrity of the profession. Respect had to be earned through conduct, accountability and service.

He carried those values throughout his career.

A Trailblazer in Corrections

Ed’s accomplishments frequently placed him first.

He was the first Essex County Correction Officer to receive the county’s Officer of the Year Award.

He was the first New Jersey Correction Officer to be nationally recognized among the top five officers in the country.

He advanced into investigative and supervisory responsibilities at a time when Black correctional professionals continued to face barriers to recognition and advancement.

Ed did not treat those achievements as an endpoint. He used the credibility and experience he gained to create opportunities, mentor others and strengthen representation within law enforcement.

He became active with the New Jersey Chapter of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, including service on its Board of Trustees. NOBLE’s mission of promoting justice, equity, professional excellence and community engagement closely reflected the values Ed demonstrated throughout his life.

His leadership reminded others that corrections belonged within the broader law-enforcement community and that correctional professionals deserved a place in conversations about public safety, leadership and justice.

Ed helped open that space.

Service Beyond the Jail

Ed’s commitment to Newark extended beyond his professional responsibilities.

He was active with the West Ward Civic Organization and received numerous awards and commendations from federal, state, county and municipal agencies for his professional and community contributions.

He was not interested in serving only one part of his community.

He cared about safer neighborhoods, stronger relationships and the well-being of the people around him. He was a fierce protector of his family, neighbors and friends and an advocate for service rooted in fairness and responsibility.

For Ed, professional service and community service were not separate callings. Both were expressions of the same belief: those with the ability to help others also carry a responsibility to do so.

After more than 31 years of service, Ed retired in 2002.

But retirement did not end his commitment to corrections.

It gave him more opportunity to serve the profession nationally.

Carrying the Founders’ Vision Forward

Ed became involved with CPOF in 1990, during a defining period in the Foundation’s history.

That year, CPOF held its first PROJECT 2000 gathering, beginning an annual tradition of honoring fallen correctional professionals and surrounding their surviving families with continued support. The Foundation was still young, and much of its work remained closely connected to its California beginnings.

For CPOF to fulfill its promise nationally, it needed trusted correctional leaders in other parts of the country—people who understood their local systems, could build relationships and shared the founders’ conviction that correctional families should never face tragedy alone.

Ed became one of those leaders.

In 1992, just two years after becoming involved, he joined CPOF’s Board of Directors. He would remain an active Board member for the next 30 years, serving until his passing in 2022.

As a New Jersey Correction Officer, Investigator and Sergeant, Ed brought the experiences of county corrections and the perspective of East Coast correctional professionals into an organization founded by five Californians. His presence helped CPOF grow beyond its original geographic roots and become more representative of the nationwide correctional community it sought to serve.

Ed eventually became Vice Chairman and continued serving as a National Director. CPOF publications from across three decades consistently list Edgar W. Barcliff Jr. beside the Foundation’s founders and other longtime leaders.

That continuity mattered.

Ed helped guide CPOF through the expansion of its Catastrophic Assistance Program, PROJECT 2000, national outreach and the creation and growth of the CPOF National Honor Guard. He helped make decisions affecting families he might never personally meet, while never losing sight of the individuals behind those decisions.

His Board service was not honorary.

Ed remained engaged, visible and committed until his final days. He gave CPOF more than 30 years of leadership, carrying the founders’ original vision forward while helping prepare the organization for the generations that would follow.

A Leader Who Showed Up

Ed’s leadership was personal.

He understood that the people CPOF assisted were not cases, applications or names on an agenda. They were correctional professionals, spouses, parents and children navigating some of the most difficult moments of their lives.

Ed showed up for them.

CPOF’s historical publications document his support of the National Honor Guard and his presence with families after line-of-duty deaths. In 2015, for example, he joined Chairman Glenn Mueller and members of the Honor Guard in supporting families affected by the deaths of Texas Correctional Officers Eligio Garcia and Christopher Davis.

Such moments required more than organizational authority. They required compassion, patience and the ability to enter a family’s grief without making promises that could not be kept.

Ed’s warmth helped him do that.

He could walk into a room of people he had never met and quickly make them feel less alone. His calm presence communicated that CPOF had not arrived merely to fulfill a responsibility.

CPOF had arrived because the family mattered.

The Kids Room

At PROJECT 2000, Ed made one particular visit every year.

He went to the Kids Room.

PROJECT brings together the children of correctional professionals who died in the line of duty, along with children from past families and others within the CPOF community. Some arrive unsure of what to expect. Some carry grief they may not yet know how to express. Others return year after year to reunite with friends who understand their experiences without explanation.

Ed did not view the Kids Room as separate from the serious work of the Board.

He understood that it was central to the mission.

He went there to take in the fun, share in the children’s excitement and become part of their experience. For those moments, he was not simply the Vice Chairman or National Director.

He was Ed.

He was the man with the cool smile who wanted to hear what the children were doing. He was another trusted adult who came back year after year. His presence demonstrated that the leaders of CPOF knew these children, valued them and were committed to their future.

Major leadership decisions help an organization grow.

But small acts of consistent kindness reveal what an organization truly values.

Ed’s visits to the Kids Room showed exactly what CPOF valued.

He Never Met a Stranger

Those who knew Ed remember that he never met a stranger.

This was not simply a way of saying he was friendly. It described his ability to recognize the humanity of the person in front of him.

He could speak easily with a senior law-enforcement executive, a newly hired Correction Officer, a grieving spouse or a child attending PROJECT for the first time.

His kindness did not prevent him from being direct. Ed said what needed to be said. But he did so with a way about him that allowed people to hear it.

That balance made him an effective leader and mentor.

People knew where Ed stood.

They also knew he cared.

Everyone Was Family

Ed often spoke of CPOF as a family, but he did not use that word lightly.

He lived it.

The relationships Ed built through CPOF did not end when a Board meeting adjourned or when everyone returned home from PROJECT. He remained part of people’s lives—celebrating their milestones, sharing their joys and standing beside them through difficult seasons.

When a longtime CPOF staff member held a destination wedding, Ed was there.

His attendance was not part of an official responsibility. There was no Board agenda, ceremonial role or organizational obligation. He attended because someone who had served beside him through CPOF was getting married, and Ed considered that person part of his family.

That was how Ed approached the people around him.

Staff members were family.

Board members were family.

Correctional professionals were family.

The surviving spouses and children CPOF welcomed into its care were family.

The children he visited each year in the PROJECT Kids Room were family.

Ed did not simply say that everyone belonged. He made people feel it through his presence. He showed up for memorials and difficult moments, but he also showed up for weddings, celebrations and the milestones that make up a life.

That distinction matters.

Taking care of our own is not limited to responding when tragedy strikes. It also means building relationships strong enough to remain through every season—grief and joy, hardship and celebration.

Ed understood that.

He helped make CPOF a family because he treated everyone within it as part of his own.

A Life Built Around Family

Beyond his professional accomplishments and national service, Ed was a devoted husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, brother, uncle, cousin and friend.

He was married to Malcinia in 1966, and together they had three children: Lori, Todd and Nicole. Ed was also the father of Wanda.

Later in life, Ed was introduced to Arvelia “Al” Bowie through a mutual friend. After meeting, they knew they wanted to build their lives together. They married on December 26, 2012, sharing a partnership rooted in love and commitment through all of life’s seasons.

Ed was the proud grandfather of Amber, Kyle, Sebastian and Katherine and the great-grandfather of Quincy.

The same qualities others experienced in his public life—protection, loyalty, kindness and directness—were deeply rooted in his love for family.

Family was also central to his work with CPOF.

He understood that correctional professionals did not serve alone. Their spouses and children shared the demands of the job, lived with its risks and carried its consequences.

When CPOF supported an officer, it supported a family.

When CPOF honored the fallen, it made a commitment to those left behind.

Ed took that commitment personally.

When a National Leader Was Lost

Edgar Winfield Barcliff Jr. passed away on March 16, 2022, at the age of 77.

At the time of his passing, Ed was still an active member of CPOF’s Board of Directors. He had been involved with the Foundation for 32 years and had served on its Board for approximately 30 of them.

His passing did not mark the end of a leader who had gradually stepped away.

Ed remained committed through his final days.

CPOF lost an active Vice Chairman, National Director and friend whose presence had been part of the organization for most of its history.

Just two weeks after his passing, Congressman Donald M. Payne Jr. rose in the United States House of Representatives to recognize Ed’s life.

The congressional tribute honored a beloved husband and family man, a proud son of Newark, a trailblazing Correction Officer and a leader committed to supporting officers and their families through the demanding realities of law enforcement.

It also recognized something the CPOF family already knew: Ed’s legacy would continue through the people he touched—from the officers he mentored and communities he served to the family he loved.

CPOF lost more than its Vice Chairman.

It lost a source of wisdom, warmth and stability.

It lost a leader who had helped carry the organization from its formative years into a new generation.

And it lost a friend who had never met a stranger.

A Legacy That Still Feels Present

Ed’s place within CPOF’s history cannot be defined only by the length of his Board service.

His legacy is found in the national reach he helped strengthen.

It is found in the families he supported, the leaders he mentored and the correctional professionals whose service he helped elevate.

It is found in the children who looked up during PROJECT and saw a familiar face entering their room once again.

Ed represented what it means to carry a vision forward.

He was not one of the five founders who first imagined CPOF, but he became involved only six years after the Foundation was established. He devoted the next 32 years of his life to ensuring its promise reached farther, included more people and remained rooted in compassion.

Ed became a bridge between CPOF’s founders and the generations of leaders who followed them.

That is why he is the right person to begin Legacy Friday.

This series honors those who received a mission from the generation before them and strengthened it for the generation that followed.

Ed did exactly that.

He brought his experience from Newark.

He brought his integrity as an investigator.

He brought his leadership as a Sergeant.

He brought his national perspective, his commitment to representation and his lifelong dedication to service.

Most importantly, he brought himself—kind, direct, dependable and warm.

The Leader and the Man

Today, we remember Edgar “Ed” Winfield Barcliff Jr.:

A trailblazing Correction Officer.

An Investigator and Sergeant trusted to protect the integrity of his profession.

A community advocate and law-enforcement leader.

A CPOF National Director and Vice Chairman who remained committed until his final days.

A mentor, husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather and friend.

A man who never met a stranger.

He helped lead an organization created to care for correctional families, but his greatest contribution may have been the way he made that care feel personal.

When Ed said CPOF was a family, he lived it. He showed up for the grief, the work, the celebrations and the milestones. He made room for everyone and treated each person as though they belonged.

Ed did not merely help direct CPOF.

He helped make it a family—and then he lived as part of that family for the rest of his life.

Edgar “Ed” Winfield Barcliff Jr.
July 30, 1944–March 16, 2022

If you knew Ed, served with him in New Jersey, worked beside him through NOBLE or CPOF, or shared time with him at PROJECT 2000, we invite you to share your photographs and memories. Every story will help preserve the legacy of a leader whose warmth, service and unmistakable smile made people feel that they belonged.