Login | May 17, 2025
Former cop and veteran was the real deal
ASHLEY C. HEENEY
Legal News Reporter
Published: May 9, 2011
Albert R. Wilkinson was one of the best of the “old cops.”
A veteran, and former APD cop “Wilki,” as everybody called him, died April 17 at age 77 after a battle with cancer.
“People came and came and came,” Chaplain Bob Denton said of the large attendance to the April 23 memorial services at Schermesser Funeral Home.
Denton, who knew Wilki for many years, officiated the ceremony and said people all over the country reached out after hearing that he passed away.
“He fought the sickness with courage and quality. He was the kind of guy who said, ‘honesty and courage don’t mean anything ‘til its tested,’ and he sure set the bar.
“He was always more than you expected, as a good man and a good cop,” he said.
“He had the kind of integrity that he didn’t wave around but it was always there. He fit in with everybody, particularly with the law enforcement. He was a rock solid cop, and the same way with the prosecutors office.
“I said [to him] did you ever miss it? And he said “I miss the people.’
“It’s not the nonsense, but the people, the quality of the people.”
Denton said Wilki liked to ride his motorcycle (with his wife, Karin) and many people didn’t know it, but he had a great voice. A song he sang was played at the memorial.
In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his sister, Donna Wowra. He is survived by his wife, sons, David (Leah) White and Frank Wilkinson; daughter, Kelley Dario; grandchildren, Nikki, Danny, Ashlee, Frank and Madison; and great-granddaughter, Avery, soon to arrive; many other family, friends and his 10 cats.
He enjoyed golfing, boating, racing cars, building engines, flying RC airplanes, discussing politics, listening to jazz, working with stained glass and playing with his cats, according to his obituary. He was a member of the F.O.P. Lodge #7, American Legion Garfield Memorial Post 566, Buckeye State Sheriffs Assoc., and the NRA and he was an excellent marksman.
“He was decent, he represented all the qualities you would want as a cop,” Denton said. “He did it when you didn’t have the technology we have today, it was just good solid police work. It wasn’t the profession that made him, it was he who made the profession that was so good.”
Sheriff Drew Alexander, a longtime friend and neighbor of Wilki, said he first met him as a vice in the Akron Police Department and Wilki was his supervisor. After his second retirement, Wilki was a volunteer at the Sheriff's Training Center, working on the firing range.
“He was a great sergeant—bold and not afraid of making a decision,” Alexander said. “If you had a jam as a cop, he was the one you wanted.”
Attorney Mike Callahan said that his friend Wilki was more than a cop.
“I met him 25 years ago when I was a young lawyer, and he had lived an entire life before I met him.
“He had been an APD narcotics detective, a Korean War vet, an Air Force vet. And he was one the last of a dying breed,” he said.
Wilki was also patriotic, a good friend and a “real American.”
“If he loved you, he did, and he’d do anything for you. And if he didn’t, he’d tell you and you knew it. He was as loyal a friend as anybody could have.”