Mark Herald with wife, Cecile, and their five children.

Mark Herald’s Calvin career started with a history major and a spot on the tennis team—and ended in law enforcement. The Muskegon, Mich., native came to Calvin in 1978 and found his vocation on the tennis court.

Knowing that law enforcement agencies were eager to hire minority candidates, Herald’s tennis partner, Jim Doezema ‘82, introduced Herald ’82 to Gerry Steele who was the deputy chief of police in Grand Rapids. Steele impressed on Herald the call in public service to “always treat people fairly and courteously” and passed Herald’s name along to his brother, Dick, who hired Herald as a public safety officer for the Grand Rapids Public Schools. After two years, Herald took a position with the Grand Rapids Police.

During his 16-year tenure with the Grand Rapids Police, Herald was able to do innovative policing. In fact, in 1997 Herald’s unit won the Weber-Seavy Award for Outstanding Quality in Law Enforcement—the highest honor in law enforcement and a rarity with only a few awarded nationwide. The commended program that trained senior volunteers to do police work was Herald’s brainchild.

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Now, having graduated from the FBI National Academy and holding a master’s degree from Aquinas College, Herald is serving East Grand Rapids as deputy director of public safety, a move he calls “the toughest career choice of my life.” In his new position, Herald is learning a whole new style of policing. “Because it’s a smaller area, the style is more service-oriented,” he said. And, also because it’s a smaller area, all police officers need to be cross-trained as firefighters—training Herald also needed to complete. “Fire is interesting,” he said, “you won’t find a lot of guys who want to do both police work and fire fighting.” Fortunately, Herald is one of the few.

Herald is also one of the few minorities who feel called into public service. “There is still a distrust of police in the minority community. I’m working to change that, but it happens slowly.” And, he noted, “There is still a huge need for women and minorities in public service. With so many opportunities out there for talented people, public service isn’t always attractive.”

In his new work, Herald hopes to continue to capitalize on the positive aspects of public service. “It can be a good career in the public sector. You’re never going to get rich, but you’ll get the chance to do good things for a lot of people. You can really have an impact in a public service-type job,” he said.

Herald does miss his work in Grand Rapids, especially the closeness he was able to share with his wife, Cecile, a forensic services manager. The two met on a call and worked in close proximity. Up until Herald took his new position, they commuted together. “We liked the togetherness,” said Herald. Togetherness not easily achieved when the couple is raising five children—a daughter and quadruplet sons.