Arvada police officer Edward McCarthy, who died Wednesday at age 84, forged a larger- than-life reputation for a heart as generous as his appetite, impulsively giving things away and bringing flustered juvenile delinquents home for a hearty dinner.
“He didn’t want them to end up in jail,” explained his wife, Maxine, who became accustomed to doubling recipes for unexpected guests.
The three McCarthy children, too, had long experience with their father’s charitable whims.
During the McCarthy family’s early years, when Edward McCarthy served on a Nebraska police force, the children found that their toys often seemed to vanish when their father went to work.
“One time, my mom was mad because he gave some kids a basketball and some of our other toys,” said daughter Marilou Griego of Westminster. “We were little. We were like, ‘Where’s our toys?’ He said, ‘I gave them to people who are poor.’ We were a police officer’s family. We said, ‘We’re poor too!’ We didn’t have hardly any money. But he’d just say, ‘These people are a lot poorer.”‘
In 1959, the McCarthy family moved to Arvada, and Ed McCarthy joined the Arvada Police Department. He endeared himself to parents for beginning Arvada’s first school crossing-guard program. He won over children with his entertaining safety presentations, earning the nickname “Lollipop Cop” for his habit of distributing Jolly Rancher candies stashed in his pockets.
McCarthy continued to bring home young miscreants – runaways, shoplifters and perpetrators of other minor crimes. McCarthy hoped that his encouragement might help turn around budding criminals.
Many times, it did. The McCarthy family still hears from former juvenile delinquents who altered the course of their lives.
In the early 1970s, the Disney movie “The Love Bug,” inspired McCarthy to propose modifying a Volkswagen Beetle into the safety-education character Siren Says.
Initially put off by the notion of a beefy police officer palling around with a VW Bug tricked out with outsized lips and spiky eyelashes, Arvada City Council members wondered aloud if, given his girth, McCarthy could even fit into the vehicle. They withdrew that objection after another council member, whose weight and size approximated McCarthy’s, noted that she drove that very model.
In 1982, the year he retired, McCarthy received the national Police Officer of the Year award. The Arvada Fire Department also made him an honorary firefighter in 1998, citing his public service and interest in safety.
A rosary is scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday at St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church, 12735 W. 58th Ave. in Arvada, followed by a funeral Mass at 10 a.m. Thursday at the church.
Besides his wife and daughter, survivors include his son, Edward “Skip” McCarthy Jr. of Phoenix.; another daughter, Patricia McCarthy of Arvada; seven grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
Staff writer Claire Martin can be reached at 303-820-1477 or cmartin@denverpost.com.
