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

DATE: SATURDAY, December 10, 1994                   TAG: 9412120057
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI                                 LENGTH: Medium

SLAIN DEPUTY REMEMBERED

Hundreds of law enforcement officers from throughout Virginia and other states came to the New River Valley on Friday to lay one of their own to rest.

Two ministers described Wythe County Deputy Cliff Dicker, 58, as a man who always had a smile.

Dicker was killed Tuesday in Wytheville while serving detention petitions on 15-year-old Christopher Shawn Wheeler for petty and auto larceny. He was a veteran of 14 years with the department and its first deputy to be killed in the line of duty.

At noon, two hours before Dicker's funeral at the Bob White Boulevard Church of God, the first of 200 police cruisers began streaming into Pulaski.

They formed a convoy stretching for miles as they moved to Highland Memory Gardens in Dublin for the burial. Wytheville American Legion Post 9 conducted gravesite military honors for Dicker, who served in the U.S. Air Force for 20 years and in Vietnam.

Dicker lived in Barren Springs and his family attended Jubilee Baptist Church at Max Meadows. But his church was not large enough to accommodate the hundreds of friends, law enforcement officers, public officials and others who filled the Pulaski church, some standing along both walls during the service.

``We have seen this too much. This cannot go on,'' said the Rev. Donald W. Keller Sr., Dicker's pastor, speaking about recent killings of law enforcement officials. ``America, our house is on fire. ... It's time today to whip crime and criminals and to reinforce those people who are keeping things in order.''

Keller said there might have been times when his sermons made half the congregation mad at him, but, when he would look out from the pulpit, ``Cliff was always smiling.''

The Rev. Mike Johnston, also a pastor at Dicker's church, had the same recollection. ``Every time I ever saw Cliff, he always had a smile on his face. Didn't matter where he was, didn't matter what he was doing, he always had that gentle smile.''

Johnston said Dicker occasionally would drive his patrol cruiser past Johnston's home and pass out treats to his children. ``Daddy, Daddy, look what Mr. Policeman gave me,'' Johnson said his children would call out as they came back inside with pieces of candy or bubble gum.

Just before Dicker had open-heart surgery nearly two years ago, Johnston recalled, a doctor was explaining the possible dangers of the operation to Dicker. ``He still had that smile on his face,'' Johnston said.

Johnston said he knew that Dicker was prepared ``to meet his maker'' when he died because, back when he had the surgery, Johnson said, he asked Dicker that very question. ``Preacher Mike, I know that I've been saved by the peace of God,'' Johnston quoted Dicker as replying.

That was one of the few times that Dicker had tears in his eyes, Johnston said.