Thomas Holmes, Phila. police officer

When Thomas Holmes was near the end of his career as a Philadelphia police officer in the 1990s, he became a turnkey at the former 23rd District station at 17th Street and Montgomery Avenue.

"If somebody gets locked up," his wife, Margaret, said, "the job of the turnkey is to make sure they get locked up."

As a jailer in that police station near Temple University, she said, "it was an important job."

On Sunday, June 12, Mr. Holmes, 79, of Brigantine, N.J., a Philadelphia police officer from 1967 to 1995, died at home of progressive supranuclear palsy.

"He told me he always wanted to be a policeman," his wife said, even when he was a child. "He was a fair and honest policeman."

A 1954 graduate of John Bartram High School, Mr. Holmes went on to become an Army lineman, climbing poles at military bases in Texas.

After serving for two years, he was called back to active duty during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, and served for eight months at a base in Georgia.

When he joined the Police Department in 1967, Mr. Holmes was assigned to the 23rd and worked there throughout his career.

Besides covering the district in a patrol car, his wife said, "he spent a lot of time on bus details," in which officers were assigned as standby personnel during events of some significance, such as the 1985 MOVE confrontation.

After living in Olney for much of his career, the Holmeses moved to Brigantine in the late 1990s.

For 10 years after his retirement, Mr. Holmes was a volunteer for Jean Webster, who until her death in 2011 offered free meals daily at the Victory First Presbyterian Deliverance Church in Atlantic City.

He also volunteered at the Community Presbyterian Church in Brigantine, his wife said, "for whatever they needed."

And from the late 1990s to 2008, he worked three days a week, part-time, as a security guard at the former Trump Marina casino-hotel.

Besides his wife of 54 years, Mr. Holmes is survived by sons Thomas A., Scott and Joseph; three brothers, and six grandchildren.

A visitation was set from noon Saturday, June 18, at St. Paul's Lutheran Church, 5918 N. Fifth St., before a 1 p.m. memorial service there. A memorial service in Brigantine is being planned.

Donations may be sent to Abington Hospice, Suite 250, 2510 Willow Grove Ave., Willow Grove, Pa. 19090-0520.

Condolences may be offered to the family at shaeffmyers.com.

wnaedele@phillynews.com

610-313-8134@WNaedele