When Colonel Gerald Massengill retired from the Virginia State Police four years ago, he was certain of one thing—he wasn’t going to grow rusty sitting in a rocking chair.
 
“I knew there would be enough to keep me busy doing what I love to do,” he said. Massengill is an avid outdoorsman and family is a big part of his life. Hunting, especially quail, and fishing were on his to-do list, as was spending time with his wife of 44 years, Juanita, their three children and four grandchildren.
 
In October 2003, Massengill stepped down as superintendent, a post he held for the last three of his 37-year career with the State Police. He didn’t know it then, but he wasn’t through working. Two governors would call him out of retirement to take on special assignments and he would accept a part-time job as executive director of the Virginia Public Safety Foundation, a nonprofit organization which provides financial assistance to the families of state public safety officers killed or severely injured in the line of duty.
 
Massengill, 65, has been named the “Fifty Plus Person of the Year.” It’s not his first honor. His resume contains a list of awards and commendations for outstanding service.
 
Norma Poole of Chesterfield County, who retired last year as a State Police statistician described Massengill as a kind person. “Some of the State Police superintendents may have presented a ‘tougher’ image, but it is just Colonel Massengill’s style and personality to be calm, discerning and a good listener,” she said.
 
A humble person, Massengill always gives credit the people he works with. “Any success I’ve enjoyed goes to the people who surrounded me at the State Police,” he said. 
 
 
Going Back to Work
In May 2005, former Gov. Mark R. Warner asked Massengill to serve as interim director of the scandal-plagued state Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. When he left game and inland fisheries in November 2006, he said, “That’s it. Never again.” And he went back to being retired.
 
Then last May, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine called from Virginia Tech asking Massengill to head the eight-member panel charged with investigating the April 16 massacre in which 32 people were killed, before the gunman, Cho Seung Hui, committed suicide.
 
“It was one of those things you can’t say no to,” said Massengill, who lives on Lake Chesdin in Sutherland, near Petersburg. He was helping set up for a community shrimp feast when Kaine called. “For four months after that, my life was pretty much consumed with the panel,” he said.
 
The governor selected an outstanding panel, Massengill said. “Any success we have enjoyed out of that tremendous work effort was because of the people on that panel. We looked at issues ranging from mental health to law enforcement to decision making.”
 
Now back in retirement, Massengill said, “None of us know what life experiences are in store for us…Life is full of peaks and valleys. I think there are reasons for being exposed to different things. You learn something from each situation that can help you deal with the next situation.”
 
Air Force Inspires Career
The Johnston County, N.C., native, who grew up on a tobacco farm, became interested in police work while serving as a policeman in the U.S. Air Force from 1961 to 1965.
 
He went on to graduate from the University of Louisville’s Advanced Administrative Officers course at the school’s Southern Police Institute. He also completed the FBI’s Tactical Weapons course, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Anti-Terrorism/Hostage course, the Virginia Executive Institute and Virginia Commonwealth University’s criminal justice administration program.
 
He graduated from the State Police Academy in 1967. Three days later: “I’m in Newport News on a roof with a gas gun in my hand watching a Newport News police car burn. There was labor strike at the shipyard that turned ugly. Tear gas was used to bring everything under control,” Massengill recalled.
 
 Weathering the Worst
Since his first day on the job as a trooper and in his other posts with the department, Massengill has weathered riots, floods, coal workers’ strikes, labor disputes, demonstrations, horrific crime scenes, hostage situations, the 9/11 terrorist attacks and state budget cuts. He learned something from each one.
 
During the days of civil unrest over the Vietnam War, he went to disturbances in many cities around the state. “Out of that comes a respect for other people’s opinions although I may not agree with them. You really learn to listen to people,” he said.
 
“I remember as a young trooper, any time I got back in my patrol car and I was upset and I knew the violator was upset, I tried to see if I had done something wrong. It was not a feather in my hat to write any ticket,” he added.
 
Massengill recalled standing in a service station lot in Windsor with a man holding his intestines in his hands after having been shot and sitting on a mountain with a young boy who had just shot his father because his father was abusing his mother.
 
But the most difficult things to deal with are the death of a trooper and death notifications, he said. “It’s hard to knock on a door and tell a wife her husband is not coming home.”
 
Tech Tragedy Presented Unique Challenge
“I’ve seen so much, but the Virginia Tech tragedy was different. There were so many victims. It had challenges that went beyond some of the events I’ve been involved in,” Massengill said. “Governor Kaine gave the panel a clear charge and that kept us focused. We just followed the facts wherever they took us and made recommendations according to the facts….
 
“It was not our purpose to go out and point fingers and say ‘got you.’ It was our purpose to look at all of the events leading up to April 16, Cho’s involvement and to look at law enforcement and the decisions of college officials. To tell what went wrong and what went right.”
 
The panel conducted more than 200 interviews, held four public meetings and pored over thousands of pages of documents, he said. The panel also listened to the 911 tapes.
 
“The calls from youngsters in those rooms at Virginia Tech being murdered— You can’t describe the effect it has on you,” Massengill said.
 
Moving Beyond the Procedure
He became so consumed with procedures and with processes that he didn’t realize the effect the tragedy was having on the victims’ families until he sat down with them and heard some of their comments, he said. “The Cho family turned out to be hurting just as much as any of them.”
 
Massengill added, “After that meeting, it was a priority with me to take what we were doing to a new level with the families as much as we could. Of course, Governor Kaine got involved with the families too.
 
“It created memories and emotions that will be with me the rest of my life. When a parent looked at me and said, ‘My child was exactly where she should have been. She was attending a class where she was expected to be safe. In a very few weeks she would have come home with a master’s degree. Instead she came home in a pine box,’ that made me realize it was not just the public in Virginia, it was not just college officials who wanted answers. Families had to have answers too,” he said.
 
Massengill hopes the panel’s work will keep such a tragedy from happening again, he said.
 
Retired, but not Idle
Now that the colonel is back into retirement, he wants to give back to the community. He’s involved in several organizations that enable him to fulfill that desire.
 
He serves on the Virginia State Crime Commission, is vice chairman of the Dinwiddie County Board of Zoning Appeals, is a safety consultant to the State Fair of Virginia and is involved in the Ruritan Club and his church, Ocran United Methodist. He also is on the advisory board of Virginia College Parents Inc.
 
He also has been involved with the Virginia Public Safety Foundation for years. When he retired in 2003, the foundation’s board asked Massengill to serve as executive director. “To be honest, I don’t do a lot of work there. That group is worthwhile in what it does and I’m pleased to be a part of it,” he said.
 
“All that keeps me busy.”
 
Freelance writer and retired journalist Alberta Lindsey lives in Richmond and writes the column, “Faith in Action” for Fifty Plus.

 

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