Reading Patrolman Willard H. Santel
Age: 23
Served:  1½ years

On May 8, 1945, Patrolman Santel, of 218 East Columbia Avenue, while on a motorcycle, pursued a violator on Old Wright Highway (now Interstate 75) when he crashed into a retaining wall in Lockland.  Suffering from a compound fracture of the tibia and fibula, he was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital.  While hospitalized, he developed bilateral pneumonia and died May 29, 1945.

Patrolman Santel left a wife, Patricia, who was pregnant at the time with his only child, Sylvia.  Though only 23, his father, mother, and brother preceded him in death.  He was buried on June 2, 1945, in Section D of Saints Peter and Paul Cemetery with his family. 

Please contact Director@GCPHS.com if you have any information about this incident or the officer or his picture, artifiacts, and/or relatives..