NORTH OGDEN -- Don Mueller was born during in the Great Depression. He served his country in the second World War. He proudly fought crime alongside a black partner in the early 1960s.
He died Friday, at age 86, after a long battle with cancer. But his daughter Tammy Widdison will always remember him for "his love for his family and his community and country."
Mueller's death brings to an end a living chapter of the United States' past.
Fresh out of high school, he was a seaman 1st class in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He eventually traded his military uniform for the black and blue of the Ogden Police Department in the 1950s.
When he became a detective, his partner was Marshall White. To his childrens' best knowledge, their father and his black partner were one of the first such racial pairings in the police department.
Beyond just partners, they were close friends at a time when racial tensions and segregation were still alive and well.
But their friendship and White's life were cut short when he was shot and killed in 1963 by a juvenile he was attempting to arrest. Mueller was at home sick that day.
White's death hit him hard, his eldest son Alan Mueller said.
Later that year, he ran for the Ogden City Council District 1 seat to make a bigger difference in his community. He won the seat and served for several years, after which he eventually moved to North Ogden.
He also had a passion for making a difference in the lives of children.
Don Mueller served as a counselor for the Intermountain Indian School, a boarding school in Brigham City for Native American youths.
"He loved that. He loved the kids. Helping them and taking care of them. He talked quite a bit about them," Widdison said.
He also became active in the Boy Scouts of America. As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he served as superintendent for Sunday school.
His own children remember their father as an easygoing and generous man. When he would pull over drivers in December, he would sometimes write "Merry Christmas" on their tickets instead of citing them.
"We grew up without a lot," Alan Mueller said, "but he was always there for us, and there was a goodness about him."
When Don Mueller made time for himself, he enjoyed dancing and fishing. The former was a joy; the second was peace and calm for him.
"He used to say that, 'If I could just go fishing, all the troubles are gone,'ââ" Widdison said.
Now a calm is what Widdison is left with. In the last part of his life, Don Mueller would call Widdison eight or nine times a day just to check on her. She said that used to annoy her -- but now that there are no more calls, she misses them.
But she also has a scrapbook. Inside is a picture of her father as a seaman with a friend of his. There are also newspaper clippings of his successful run for city council, as well as his involvement in the Boy Scouts, the boarding school and his church.
The boarding school began as a military hospital during WWII. The Marshall White Center, a recreational center named after his fallen partner that helps keep children off the streets and out of trouble, was first a WWII barracks.
Mueller started his adult life in the war. He spent much of the rest of it making a difference in the community.
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