Capt. Vincent DeGulis MANALAPAN — The passing of retired Manalapan police Capt. Vincent DeGulis last month occasioned recollections of the man from some fellow officers who worked shoulder to shoulder with him.
DeGulis, 68, died after a lengthy illness. He was recalled as one of the men who founded the Manalapan Police Department almost four decades ago.
DeGulis retired from the department in 1995 after serving for 25 years on the force he helped to build, starting in 1970 with Thomas Wallace.
Wallace, who came to Manalapan from the Marlboro Police Department, had earlier served with the Matawan Police Department. He said DeGulis was working as a line installer for the telephone company when Wallace tapped him to come work for the Marlboro police.
The two men transferred out of Marlboro to start the Manalapan Police Department in 1970 with Wallace as a sergeant and DeGulis as a patrolman. It was at the time when Manalapan was in the beginning stages of its transformation from a rural community to suburb.
Wallace said that in 1972, he was promoted to captain and then to chief, while DeGulis assumed the role of captain.
The retired chief said DeGulis had a natural aptitude for the administrative aspect of police work and was good at what he did because he enjoyed that type of work. DeGulis’ administrative skills allowed Wallace to do what he did best, which was to “hit the streets.”
Rounding out what would be the founding trinity of the Manalapan Police Department was Robert Kerek, who is now employed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Kerek had been a Matawan police officer before joining Wallace and DeGulis to start the Manalapan police force.
In the wake of DeGulis’ passing, Wallace, 67, and Kerek, 71, spoke separately with the News Transcript but their recollections of DeGulis were remarkably similar, almost to the words they used to describe their memories of and affection for their former partner.
The department’s current chief, Stuart Brown, offered his own recollections of DeGulis, a man he met when he was a 19- year-old rookie just starting his law enforcement career.
Brown remembered how his awe and respect for DeGulis remained the same even after Brown outranked the veteran officer.
“I always looked up to Vinnie as a mentor and never as a peer. Even after I became chief, I always called him captain because that was what he was to me when he worked here,” Brown said.
He recalled how, as a young man, he watched DeGulis work to build the police department.
“I will always remember Vinnie as probably the most approachable supervisor in the police department. He was responsible for firearms and in-service training, and as a result, he was very involved in my development as a police officer,” Brown said. “He was a genuinely nice man who had a gift when it came to relating how his training topics and techniques should be applied to police work.”
Wallace credits DeGulis with being the reason why the Manalapan Police Department was the second department in Monmouth County, behind Shrewsbury, to arm its officers with Browning automatic pistols.
According to Wallace, DeGulis became aware that Illinois state troopers had been the first to switch from revolvers to automatic pistols, and after looking into the matter, he developed the proposal that led Manalapan to switch to the more efficient weapon.
Wallace said he, Kerek and DeGulis were the perfect complement to each other’s talents and worked together at a point in time when camaraderie and “having each other’s back” was the way things were done.
He recalled how they worked their shifts so that “Vinnie could do what he did best, which was the administrative end of things; Kerek could take the investigations, which he was good at; which left me to do what I did best, be a cop, be on the street.”
Speaking of his friend, Wallace said of DeGulis, “We built the department together. I just made more because I had a higher rank than he did.”
Brown said DeGulis had an uncompromising work ethic, something he said could be called “the DeGulis life philosophy.”
“If there was one piece of advice that I found to be most memorable and worthy, it would be his beliefs on work ethics. He told me that no matter where you are in the department’s hierarchy, there is always someone watching. Even at the very bottom, as a new patrolman, someone is watching and formulating their opinion of you as a person and as a police officer. You may think that people here don’t care because you’re young and not important, but remember that they do, and what you do today will be used to judge you tomorrow,” the current chief said.
Kerek, who has worked with FEMA for 20 years, said he stayed in touch with DeGulis. He said the two men exchanged e-mails daily, “almost to the end.”
Remembering his friend and former comrade-in-arms, Kerek said, “Something about Vinnie always stood out. Vinnie was a unique individual. Not easily swayed and with such a genuine heart for friendship. I remember all the times we would patrol together and when the shift came to an end, he would say let’s do this again, we may have missed something.
“I can remember this like it was yesterday. Vinnie had a great sense of humor, and his loyalty to his friends was very distinct. I always admired how steady of a person Vinnie was. Nothing would startle him. Crazy things would happen and Vinnie would just casually address whatever was at hand.
“Vinnie was an honest friend. He was not afraid to tell me when he thought I was wrong and should have made different decisions in life,” he said.
Kerek credits DeGulis’ style and an eye for detail for helping the department develop into the respected institution it is today.
“Vinnie was charming, quick thinking and above all had one of the quickest wits I’d ever seen. A natural interviewer, his fast thinking and deductive skills landed him in the Manalapan Police Department to help organize the start-up of the department and to conduct background checks and interviews of new police officers,” he said.
Just as important as his work ethic was DeGulis’ dedication to those people he considered his friends. Kerek recalled that when his (Kerek’s) father passed away, DeGulis found a unique way to honor him.
Kerek said DeGulis was stationed at the head of his father’s casket when he called Kerek over and whispered in his ear, “I wore my Cossack boots; I hope your father likes them.”
The significance of the remark was that Kerek’s father, who hailed from Austria- Hungary, had worn the same type of boots while fighting in the first World War.
Kerek said he had been very touched by the gesture and oddly enough, upon being asked to recall the man DeGulis was, it was that memory that presented itself in his attempt to capture the essence of the man that was Capt. Vincent DeGulis.
DeGulis and his wife, Marie, were married for 25 years and had two children together, Vincent P. DeGulis Jr., 24, and Christine Marie, 21. DeGulis also had a daughter from a first marriage, Michele Cucci, 48.
Like the men who worked with her husband, Marie said it is her wonderful memories of the man that will sustain her.
“Oh, the stories. The stories I’ve got to remember,” she said.