The gathering at Grace Brethren Church of Calvert County Monday, June 9 truly was a celebration of life. Thomas A. “Tommy” Buckler Jr. was certainly a legendary figure within the ranks of the rural county’s law enforcement community.

Buckler, a county native who died last week at age 63 after a lengthy battle with a lung ailment, joined the Calvert County Sheriff’s Office in the mid-1970s when the agency was but a handful of deputies and outnumbered by the local barracks’ number of Maryland State Police (MSP) troopers. By the end of the decade he was promoted to lieutenant and held that rank until his retirement last decade. When Buckler retired he was the sheriff’s office’s commander of the Bureau of Investigations.

Buckler was also a legendary scholastic athlete at a time when Calvert County schools had not achieved its reputation as winners and contenders for state titles. He was a three-sport athlete in football, basketball and baseball, and in 2000 the Calvert High School 1969 graduate was inducted into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame.

“He was a piece of work,” declared sheriff’s office Chaplin Pastor David S. Mohler, who drew laughs with his comment.

Mohler also shared a bit of county history involving Buckler, who was born in 1950 “on the second floor of a country hospital in the town of Prince Frederick.” The county’s old hospital building was located on Church Street. In 2002, the building, which had become known as the Calvert House, was converted into the headquarters of the sheriff’s office, which had become the county’s primary law enforcement agency during the 1990s. Buckler’s office was in proximity to where he was born.

Retired assistant sheriff and MSP trooper Tom Hejl addressed the gathering. Hejl recalled the quick friendship he struck up with Buckler during the 1970s when he (Hejl), fresh out of the MSP academy, was assigned to Calvert County. For a time, Hejl lived with the Buckler family. In addition to working in local law enforcement, Buckler and Hejl also became golfing partners.

Local businessman Geoff Wanamaker also spoke at the service, detailing how his lengthy friendship with Buckler started over a speeding ticket that he (Buckler) eventually decided not to write. Wanamaker also prompted laughs from the mourners when he told of a fundraiser held at his auto dealership. The organizers recruited a car salesman, a politician and a cop to sit in a dunk tank. Buckler was volunteered as the cop. People could pay their money, line up and toss baseballs at the target in an attempt to dunk whoever of the three they wanted. The lines for the car dealer and politician were fairly modest but the line for the cop, “was long and went all along the building. They didn’t want to dunk a cop, they wanted to dunk Tommy Buckler.”

Also speaking at the service were Buckler’s sons, Thomas  A. “Trey” III and Nic