Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 23, 1994                   TAG: 9411230150
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

WILLIAM LORTON DIES; WAS POLICE CHIEF IN RADFORD

A native of Radford, Lorton was one of the first officers from Southwest Virginia to attend the FBI Police Academy.

During his 18 years as chief, he also organized and was the first director of the New River Police Academy, which offered its first classes in 1972.

Lorton retired in 1975.

One of the many officers Lorton hired was Johnny Butler, who is now Radford's deputy chief of police. Through the years, Butler said, he learned what a fair, effective chief Lorton had been.

"The more I'm involved with police administration," he said, "the more I realize how talented he was."

Lorton's emphasis on training and the idea of treating all people as human beings put him ahead of his time as an administrator, Butler said.

"He told me once: 'A man should do whatever he wants to do, as long as it's legal. If it is, then leave him alone.' It's a basic, necessary philosophy and I'll never forget it," Butler said.