Funeral for Maine State Police lieutenant to be held Monday

Lt. Charles "Chip" Howe

Courtesy of Maine Public Safety

VASSALBORO - Adjacent to a room that bears his name, funeral services for retired State Police Lieutenant Charles Howe will take place Monday at 10 a.m. at the Maine Criminal Justice Academy in Vassalboro.  Howe, better known as “Chip,” died early Wednesday morning at his home in Vassalboro after declining health from a rare neurological disease.  He was 59.

He served the State Police for 31 years – the last 18 of those years in the training division – and he played a hand in the training of every police officer and state trooper in Maine from 1987 to his retirement in 2005.  The academy was located on Silver Street in Waterville for most of those years, but Howe also helped oversee the relocation of the academy in 2001 to the former Oak Grove Coburn School in Vassalboro, where his services will take place Monday.

Chip joined the State Police in 1974 and initially patrolled in Troop F (Aroostook County) and Troop J (Washington & Hancock counties). He was named Trooper of the Year in 1983 and transferred to the academy in 1987 as a sergeant and was promoted to lieutenant in charge of training in 1995.  During those 18 years he served at the academy, close to 2,000 Maine police officers were trained there.  The weight room in the training center is named in his honor.

Following his retirement, Chip served as an analyst for the State Police Computer Crimes Unit. Prior to joining the State Police, Chip was a watchman for the Maine Forest Service on top of Bigelow Mountain and he also served as a forest ranger. In all he had 37 years of state service. Always physically fit – he was an avid skier, runner, bicyclist and hiker.

He is survived by his wife, Jane, and four grown children.