Hundreds Pay Respects to Former Greenwich Police Chief Peter Robbins

A “Who’s Who” of Fairfield County law enforcement, as well as family, friends, colleagues and a host of town officials and local dignitaries packed on Greenwich Avenue Saturday afternoon to bid farewell to former Chief Peter Robbins, at age 66 at his home in Delaware.

A section of Greenwich Avenue was closed to traffic from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. to allow a police motorcade, under clear blue skies, to deliver the hearse carrying Chief Robbins to the church. Monsignor Frank Wissel, a GPD chaplain, officiated at the service, which included full department and military honors.

After the service, the motorcade led to hearse to the front of Police Headquarters on Station Place, where uniformed officers saluted Robbins and dispatched his last radio call, before the hearse moved on to on North Street, where he is interred.

Robbins, son of the former Greenwich Police Chief David Robbins, joined the Greenwich Police Department in July 1970, rising to chief in September 1997. He retired in December 2002 after serving the department for 32 years. At the time of his death, he was the chief of uniformed services for the Delaware State Court System. Robbins and his father reportedly represent the only father-son duo to serve as chiefs of the Greenwich Police Department.

“Chief Robbins has left an indelible mark on the Greenwich Police Department,” Greenwich Police Chief James Heavey said during the service. “He leaves a legacy of accomplishments that will not soon be surpassed — the Special Response Unit, the Emerald Society, the Honor Guard, these are just some of the significant additions to the police department that Chief Robbins helped make possible.”

Heavey said although he didn’t always see eye-to-eye with Robbins, while under his command, “he made it a learning experience — and then we returned to doing what was right for the Department and for Town of Greenwich.” He said he had corresponded with Robbins several times via email since taking over the department's top post.

“He reminded me to take care of my two families — my own, and the Greenwich Police Department family,” Heavey said. “He was always stating how proud he was of all of us — and that it was his honor to serve on the Greenwich Police Department.”

“It’s been said before that Chief Robbins was a ‘cops cop’ — and I’m sure later today we’ll have all the stories about the 'unscheduled back-up' you’d get from [Robbins] at 2 a.m. or when you’d least expect it… ,” Heavey said. “He led by example and he was always there in the thick of things. He didn’t just say he cared about the officers and the department — he showed you… There are many officers in the department today who are better officers and people because Peter Robbins was our chief.”

Robbins’ brother, David Carole, a former district chief of the Greenwich Fire Department, said when he and his brother were growing up, their police chief father “had a great influence on us.”

“He always insisted that whatever we do, we do it well, not only to make him proud, but also to make all our associates proud,” David Carole said. “But of course, there was really only one job he wanted us to have, and in those days you didn’t argue with the old man. So, I came home one day and told him I had joined the fire department, and he said ‘What are you a sissy?’ After four years, Peter joined the Cos Cob Fire Department... and even though I was a few years ahead of him, he boasted that he made lieutenant before I did.”

Carole said when Peter came home from Vietnam in 1970, “he said he was going to take the test for the police department. I said ‘Well, you better not tell Pops.’ But a few days later [former] Chief [Steven] Barron called Pop and said ‘Congratulations Skip, Peter’s got the job…’”

Carole said he teasingly called his brother “Murph” because “he loved the pomp and ceremony — the gold stars and the Ribbons — so I called him ‘Audie Murphy' (who was the most decorated soldier in World War II)."

“Even when we went to his swearing in, it was more like a coronation,” he added. “But it was a proud day in our lives when I took Pop in a wheelchair to see the swearing in of his youngest son."

In addition to his brother David Carole, Chief Robbins is survived by his wife, Eileen; daughter Colleen Glackin (Jeff); son Timothy (Lauren); and grandchildren; Riley, Grace, Kendall, Keegan and Connor Glackin, and Colin Robbins. He was predeceased by his parents and a brother, William.