“Name that Year” is designed to put your knowledge of Tracy and its newsmakers of the past to the test. Each week, we will publish a news item that ran in a past edition — maybe it was a major event, or a story about a Tracy resident — it’s up to you to determine in what year that particular news item hit the pages of the paper:
• TRACY BID FAREWELL TO LONGTIME POLICE CHIEF BRYAN HILLGER IN DECEMBER OF THIS YEAR.
Funeral services for Hillger were conducted in the Tracy Area High School gym, with military honors presented in front of the school following the service.
“Without a doubt, Bryan is going to be missed,” said retired Tracy City Administrator Audrey Koopman, who worked with Hillger for more than 20 years.
Hillger, 60, died at his home following a six-month battle with lung cancer. “He loved his job,” said Janell Hemish, Higler’s police officer secretary. “He always wanted to do what was right for the people of Tracy.”
He was promoted to Police Chief less than three years after accepting the position as Tracy Police Officer. Koopman said during her years as administrator, she and Hillger sometimes had disagreements, but she always respected Hillger’s law enforcement knowledge and professionalism.
Keith “Whitey” Engesser, retired Tracy fire chief, remembered that Hillger and his department always worked well with firemen. He especially remembers Hillger, who was also the city’s civil defense director, working with firemen as weather spotters during severe weather watches.
• Last week’s answer: Dr. Norman J. Lee, who has lived and operated a medical practice in Tracy for 24 years, issued his formal resignation from the hospital and clinic staff effective June 1, 1976.
