This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Obituary Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/CiY.2ACEB/1390 Message Board Post: Reprinted with permission of the Albuquerque Journal September 29, 2004 Former Las Vegas Police Chief Dead at 57 SANTA FE — Former Las Vegas, N.M., Police Chief Tom Gillespie has died at age 57. He died Monday in his Santa Fe home after battling cancer for the past year, a family member said. Gillespie, who was born in Detroit, moved to New Mexico to play football on scholarship at New Mexico Highlands University. He graduated in 1969 with a bachelor's degree in political science, and returned to Detroit to enter Wayne State University to work on a master's degree in sociology. He also was accepted into the Detroit Police Academy. He joined the Detroit Police Department after finishing his degree and the academy in 1970. Las Vegas hired him as police chief in 1979, and five years later, he became director of the New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy in Santa Fe. In 1988, he became investigations director for the state attorney general's office He started his own training and consulting firm in 1990. Gillespie is survived by his wife Yvanda, son Stephen, daughter Erin, two grandchildren and two sisters. Services are planned for 1 p.m. Friday at St. Bede's Episcopal Church.