Few people can say they have spent nearly 70 years serving others. Even fewer are still volunteering at nearly 90 years old.
For Ken DeFoor, service has never been a career. It has simply been a way of life.
Whether investigating homicides in Houston, leading the Dayton Police Department, serving as a captain with the Liberty County Sheriff’s Office, searching for missing children alongside Texas EquuSearch, preserving Dayton’s history or riding in community parades behind the wheel of his restored 1957 Houston Police Department patrol car, DeFoor has devoted decades to helping others.
Now 89 and approaching his 90th birthday, DeFoor shows little interest in slowing down.
“I’m into my 69th year,” he said of his law enforcement career. “Retirement hasn’t really hit. It’s going to be retreads, not retired.”
A calling to serve
Although DeFoor was born in Sugar Land, Texas, his family lived in Cloverleaf, where he attended school before graduating from Galena Park High School in 1956.
His parents, Lona and Tant DeFoor, were ranchers and farmers, and military service ran deep in the family. DeFoor was the youngest of five brothers. Two older brothers were Navy pilots killed during World War II, losses that ultimately prevented the remaining brothers from serving overseas under what became known as the Military Selective Service Act of 1948, also referred to as the Sullivan Brothers Act.
DeFoor joined the Air National Guard’s 147th Fighter Bomber Squadron at Ellington Air Force Base, but his heart was ultimately drawn toward law enforcement.
“It wasn’t one person that inspired me,” he said. “You have a desire to serve the public.”
After working as a machinist and apprentice pipefitter, DeFoor found himself watching police officers on television responding to emergencies.
“It looked like they were doing something that was productive, something where maybe you could help somebody,” he said.
That desire led him to the Houston Police Academy, where he graduated in April 1958. Like every new officer, DeFoor began on patrol before moving into crime scene investigations, documenting everything from burglaries to homicide scenes. Eventually, he set his sights on becoming a detective.
More than 300 officers competed for detective positions through an intensive examination that required months of study while continuing to work full time.
“I slept about four hours a day for a year,” he recalled.
His hard work paid off. DeFoor finished first among more than 300 candidates. During his Houston career, he eventually rose to command the department’s helicopter division, earning his commercial helicopter pilot rating along the way.
He estimates he logged roughly 1,500 hours flying helicopters.
Dayton wasn’t Mayberry but it became home
When DeFoor retired from Houston in 1984, retirement lasted exactly two days. He accepted the position of chief of the Dayton Police Department, expecting life in a small town to resemble television’s fictional Mayberry. Instead, he found narcotics investigations and many of the same public safety challenges he’d faced in Houston.
“I was in for a rude awakening,” he said.
At the time, Dayton’s police department shut down at midnight, leaving overnight calls to the Liberty County Sheriff’s Office. With the support of city leaders, DeFoor expanded the department into a full-time, 24-hour operation. He hired additional officers and dispatchers, modernized training, updated uniforms and equipment, and introduced the department’s first computer.
One city council member questioned the purchase.
“We don’t need one of them new-fangled machines in our police department,” DeFoor recalled him saying with a laugh.
Fortunately, the city disagreed. After leaving that job, he operated a private investigations business, but soon returned to public service when former Sheriff Greg Arthur asked him to serve as chief deputy.
He remained with the Liberty County Sheriff’s Office through multiple administrations, eventually serving as captain and overseeing numerous specialized divisions, including the Honor Guard, Crime Stoppers, reserve deputies, mounted patrol, aviation, drones and public information.
Looking back over the decades, DeFoor credits the people around him more than his own accomplishments.
“I’ve been blessed,” he said. “I’ve worked with some fantastic people. Any success wasn’t because of me. It was because of the people working with me.”
Finding the missing
For the past 15 to 18 years, DeFoor and his wife, Jo, have also volunteered with Texas EquuSearch, assisting in searches for missing people across Texas, including 27 searches in Liberty County alone.
Some cases ended in joyful reunions. Others still weigh heavily on him. One involved a toddler who had intentionally been abandoned in the woods. Search volunteers found the child barely alive, leaning against a tree wearing only a diaper and socks.
“The good news is that two days later the little child was pulling a little red wagon down the hallway of the hospital,” DeFoor said.
Other searches had heartbreaking endings, including drownings and missing children whose families desperately hoped for a miracle. For DeFoor, helping families find answers—whether joyful or tragic—has always been part of the mission.
Integrity above everything
After nearly seven decades in law enforcement, DeFoor says one lesson stands above all others.
“If you ever lose your integrity, you’ve lost everything,” he said.
He believes that advice applies not only to police officers but to every profession.
“Honor your position, honor that badge, honor your responsibility to the public and above all maintain your ethics throughout everything.”
Asked what he hopes his legacy will be, DeFoor didn’t mention promotions, awards or titles. Instead, he reflected on something he wrote beneath his senior portrait in high school.
“‘The greatest gift on Earth is a true friend,'” he said, remembering. “If you can be a true friend, what more is there?”
Community service
Today, DeFoor and Jo remain active throughout Liberty County. Together they volunteer with the Dayton Historical Society, preserving the city’s history inside the restored Old Dayton School Museum.
They participate in the Dayton Rotary Club, community events and parades, often driving their meticulously restored 1957 Houston Police Department patrol car.
The couple has also appeared as extras in several movies, including Hope directed by Goldie Hawn.
Even after nearly 90 years, DeFoor still approaches life with the same outlook that first led him into law enforcement.
“Liberty County is the most fantastic place in the world to live,” he said. “When people are hurting, the community comes together to help them. Families know each other. They help each other. I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.”
To hear the full interview, click the YouTube link below to the Bluebonnet News Headlines and Heartlines podcast:
He’s also a faithful member of our church, the Methodist church in Dayton
Thank you for shining a spotlight on such an incredible Christian man. Our community is truly blessed to have Ken and Jo among us. Their unwavering dedication and commitment to our community inspires us all, as they continually make a positive difference in every aspect of their lives. Wonderful article and podcast.
I was a Clerk Typist at the Houston Police Department and worked with him in the Inspections Division where he was then Captain DeFoor. He was a pleasure to work with and we enjoyed having him as our boss. He was very patient, encouraging and taught me techniques of being a better secretary that I carried with me through my working career into the insurance industry. He was affable, very organized, a gentleman and a true professional and we were sorry to lose him to the Dayton PD when he retired. Since then, we’ve kept in touch and I always look forward to getting his and Jo’s hilarious Christmas cards every year. Most importantly, I can honestly say that I’ve been so lucky to have him as a friend all these years. He’s a true blue Bestie! We are all more Blessed to know him.
That was beautiful, I sure hope him and Jo see it! He is a wonderful human being and so is Jo. 🩷