Marc Rybinski still has a hard time coming to terms with the passing of former Clinton Township Police Chief Fred Posavetz.
Rybinski, a retired Clinton Township police officer who formerly worked the late chief, is now a deacon at St. Paul of Tarsus Catholic Church.
“It seems like yesterday that we lost him,” Rybinski said Friday. “And it seems like a lifetime.”
Rybinski was part of the crowd of family, friends, and colleagues who gathered Friday afternoon at the police department for a short ceremony hosted by the department’s Honor Guard to mark the third anniversary of Posavetz’s death.
Posavetz died on March 22, 2021 at the age of 64 from complications of COVID-19. The 41-year law enforcer was head of the Clinton Township Police Department for 14 years and was the county’s longest-serving police chief.
Posavetz grew up in Detroit and began his 41-year career with the Clinton Township Police Department in 1980 after earning a degree in criminal justice from Wayne State University. He became the department’s first K-9 officer in 1987 and 20 years later was named chief of police.
Childhood friends of Posavetz said he lived a “straight and narrow” lifestyle from as far back as they could remember. It was no surprise to them that he became a police officer but they were surprised by his death.
Jim Hamlin and Phil Uchno grew up near Seven Mile and Ryan roads on Detroit’s east side with Posavetz. The last time they spoke with him, they were planning a golfing trip together only to learn it had to be postponed due to Posavetz being diagnosed with COVID-19.
“We had four friends all booked up in February of 2021 with our airline tickets, tee times, hotel rooms, and the Saturday before we were flying out, Fred calls to say he was sick and had to cancel,” Hamlin recalled. “That was the last I talked to him.
“He was like a brother or hero to me.”
Posavetz was known to hit the police department’s weight room every morning before starting his day. Now the gym has a mural marking his name that was paid for by longtime Macomb County auto dealer Jim Causley.
According to the Centers for Disease Controls and Prevention, more than 6.8 million people in the United States have been hospitalized with COVID since 2020 and 1,185,413 have died.
