Legendary Lawman Bob Wiatt Dies
Legendary lawman Bob Wiatt, who began his 53-year career with the FBI and ended it as head of the Department of Security and University Police at Texas A&M University, died Friday (Aug. 13) after a lengthy illness.
Wiatt retired from Texas A&M in 2004 after serving for 23 years as the university’s top lawman.
Private graveside services will be held Sunday morning (Aug. 15), followed by a memorial service at First Baptist Church in Bryan at 2 p.m. Memorial Funeral Home in Bryan is in charge of arrangements.
A university story chronicling Wiatt’s career, done at the time of his retirement, is below.
Lawman Bob Wiatt Retires From Texas A&M
COLLEGE STATION, April 12, 2004 – Legendary lawman Bob Wiatt is “turning in his badge,” ending at Texas A&M University an illustrious career that began more than 50 years ago as the FBI’s newest special agent in Atlanta. He would come to be known in some circles as “Mr. FBI.”
Wiatt, 77, has announced he is stepping down as director of security and university police at Texas A&M, effective June 1.
“While in previous years I have avowed to ‘die on duty,’ I must reconsider, and this will not occur because I am now desiring to stagger into the sunlight of a retirement! (emphasis his).”
Age didn’t faze Wiatt, nor did bad guys, even when they were firing shots his way. A bad back did.
“The past year, with three major spinal surgeries and the struggle to perform as I should have, has increasingly frustrated me,” Wiatt said in a letter to Charles A Sippial, Jr., the university’s vice president for administration, who oversees the Department of Security and University Police. “Therefore, with your indulgence, I would like you to accept this epistle as my official notification to ‘turn in my badge’.”
“During the 21 years that Bob Wiatt has been employed at Texas A&M, he has dedicated his life to ensuring the safety and security of the faculty, staff and students, thereby making Texas A&M one of the safest campuses in the country,” Sippial said. “He has led the department from a small group of ‘campus cops’ to one of commissioned and security officers that rank high among many of the finest police forces in the state.
“His accomplishments during his 53 years of law enforcement are unparalled by anyone I have ever known. He will be sorely missed by everyone in the Brazos Valley, and I wish him and his family all the best as they transition into retirement,” Sippial concluded.
Texas A&M President Robert M. Gates joined in thanking Wiatt for his service to the university.
“Along with the Texas A&M community, I want to thank Bob for his selfless dedication to this University,” Gates said. “His vast experience in law enforcement and his leadership in his department have been instrumental in creating a top-notch law enforcement team and a safe environment for all of us on this campus. His experience and effectiveness – as well as his humor – will be greatly missed.”
Wiatt might be the most “proclamated” person in Texas as of a result of a 2001 campus ceremony when proclamations and letters poured in to help congratulate the legendary lawman — known to many as “Mr. FBI” — for 50 years of law enforcement service.
Perhaps the best summary of Wiatt’s half century of law enforcement work was presented personally by Ray M. Bowen, then president of Texas A&M, who observed: “He was never reluctant to put himself in harm’s way.”
Texas Gov. Rick Perry weighed in with a congratulatory letter in which he called Wiatt “a true legend” and a man “whose life is a profile of courage and integrity.”
State Sen. Steve Ogden also sent a congratulatory letter — and a Texas flag that flew over the state capitol that week in Wiatt’s honor.
FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III had a letter of congratulations personally delivered, and the head of the local FBI added her personal congratulations.
Proclamations were issued by Brazos County and the city councils of Bryan and College Station.
Nothing, however, was more meaningful to Wiatt than the tribute and plaque presented to him by his university police staff.
Although Wiatt has served for 23 years as Texas A&M’s top lawman, it was as an FBI special agent for almost three decades that he earned attention of legendary proportions, including depiction in a movie for his role in rescuing a kidnapped state trooper.
In addition to his longevity, Wiatt is in an exclusive group of law enforcement officers who are attorneys.
After serving in the Navy during World War II—seeing action in both the Atlantic and Pacific—and after attending the University of Cincinnati and Chase Law School, Wiatt began his career as an FBI agent in 1951. His duty assignments were in Atlanta, New York, Puerto Rico, Phoenix and Houston before being transferred in 1958 to Bryan, where he retired from the FBI in 1980.
While with the FBI, he had key roles in investigations of historic significance, including those of the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Federal Judge John Wood.
His service as a lawman came to widespread public attention in 1974 for his role in a prison siege at Huntsville in which three convicts held 16 hostages for 11 and one-half days — the longest prison siege ever — ending in a gun fight. Wiatt was shot twice in a bullet-proof vest but later, with another officer, killed one of the captors while their leader committed suicide and the third convict was captured and later executed.
Earlier in his FBI career, Wiatt was instrumental in freeing a kidnapped state trooper apprehended by a couple who led authorities on a 300-mile odyssey that ended in Wheelock, Texas, where Wiatt shot and killed the man and disarmed the woman. His heroics were portrayed in a movie titled “Sugarland Express.”
On another occasion, Wiatt took the place of hostages captured by a murderer in a rural school in Burleson County in 1968 and eventually persuaded the man to surrender.
After retiring from the FBI and before joining Texas A&M, Wiatt served for two years as chief investigator and “in-take attorney” for the Brazos County District Attorney’s Office in Bryan.
Wiatt confides that he thought the job at Texas A&M would be “nice and quiet.”
“Thinking that was the biggest mistake of my life,” he notes.
