Retired Maine State Police Trooper Harold “Skid” Savage of Auburn has been given the Legendary Trooper award, the highest honor for a retired trooper.

He received the honor Tuesday during the annual awards ceremony at the Maine Criminal Justice Academy in Vassalboro. Jarod Stedman of Troop E in Bangor was honored with the Trooper of the Year award.

Savage served as a state trooper from 1972 to 2004, retiring as a corporal. His first patrol was the Rumford-Mexico area, where he served for 17 years.

Retired Maine State Police Maj. Charles Love presented the award, recalling that Savage had earned the reputation of being exceptionally friendly, capable and well-respected. Savage was “known as fair, but do not test him,” Love said.

Savage didn’t simply go to work in the Rumford-Mexico area, he cared about people and earned the trust of many. “He became a fabric of his community,” Love said.

Savage played a role in keeping peace during a tense paper mill labor strike in the 1980s. During the Rumford strike, “Skid Savage was a known and trusted part of the fabric of the area, and could be counted on to provide to the administration a real-life, real-time assessment,” Love said.

Emotions and conditions reported by Savage during the strike sometimes differed from other reports. “More than one colonel told me they depended on Skid, because of his credibility in the community, to evaluate and assist for the situation,” Love said. “Skid’s abilities, trustworthiness, respect and a low-key approach contributed to the reduction of tensions” and helped police in their roles of peacekeepers.

“Skid is a true legend, in the same sense of past legendary troopers like Larry Gauthier in Jackman, Bud Graves in Aroostook County,” Love said. They and Savage “have been remembered and talked about for decades after their retirements” in the communities they served, Love said.

Savage devoted 32 years of his life to the people of Maine as a state trooper, “and all that have known him are eternally grateful,” Love said.

Reached at his home Wednesday, Savage said he was honored and proud to be named a Legendary Trooper. “It means so much to be considered by your peers, and to have joined the people who have gotten the award. It’s quite a group.”

Also on Tuesday, more than two dozen law enforcement officers were honored for going beyond what was expected in the past year, including shielding a man from bullets in West Gardiner, solving complex burglaries in Veazie and saving children in an Old Town apartment where a man killed their mother with a butcher knife.

Among those honored was Sgt. Corey Huckins, who helped come up with an emergency plan in case of a school shooting at an Oxford Hills school.

After the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in 2012, Huckins set up meetings with police chiefs in Oxford, Norway and Paris, and officials at the Oxford County Sheriff’s Office and the Oxford County Regional Communications Center, both in Paris. The result was a new system that allows dispatchers to send text messages to a list of predetermined recipients, including on- and off-duty officers. The system worked, notifying 100 officers in less than 50 seconds.

Also Tuesday, three civilians were given awards for dramatic rescues: Melissa Lamont in Searsmont, Judy Normand in Bowdoinham and Patricia Stanton in Belgrade. Because the women got involved when they saw someone in danger, they helped save the lives of women and children. In two cases the victims were strangers.

Copy the Story Link