Craig Levere:  

As you can see from my photos, I got to be what I wanted to be "when I grew up". In my early teens I began to develop an interest in a career in law enforcement and I decided that I wanted to become a state trooper. At first, I thought I would try to become a trooper in New York State, having been born and raised on Long Island. That was where I attended Cherrywood School, Salk J.H.S. and MacArthur H.S. in Wantagh/Levittown. Between my junior and senior years in high school, my family moved to Oakland, N.J. where I graduated from Indian Hills H.S. in June, 1973. I started college at William Paterson, thinking that I would try to become a New Jersey State Trooper, but another family move was in the works. My Dad worked for Johns-Manville and the company decided to relocate their headquarters to Colorado. My family moved to Littleton, Colorado in January 1974, but I stayed behind to finish a full year at William Paterson. I transferred to Metropolitan State College in Denver. I also discovered that I could meet the requirements to become a Colorado State Patrolman (the title of trooper wasn't adopted until shortly after I joined). So, I set my sights on joining the Colorado State Patrol. I went to school during the summers of 1975 and 1976 and was able to graduate half a year early. I first applied during the summer of 1976 when I turned 21 and the Patrol lowered the starting age limit from 23 to 21. I just missed getting into a training class in January 1977. In the meantime, I went to work for Burlington Northern Railroad and the Colorado & Southern Railway at various jobs in Gillette, Wyoming and Denver. The State Patrol began accepting applications in the spring of 1978, so I applied again and was accepted to recruit class 78-2 that began October 16, 1978. I graduated the following January and I was assigned to Idaho Springs on I-70 west of Denver. About a year later, I met my future wife, Diann. She was a dispatcher for the Patrol and she had transferred from Craig, Colorado to Denver. Things worked out well and we were married in May, 1981. A year later, I was able to transfer home to Littleton and we bought our first house in southwest Denver. I worked the area south of Denver for several years and then transferred to the Operational Development Section at Patrol headquarters. Al...Expand for more