Morris County Sheriff’s Department Local 151 member Trevor Ohlsen shows
blue family pride while tracing the name of his fallen hero and father, Arthur
Ohlsen.
and Newark in support of the Mark DiNardo Initiative, a mentor
program created to fasten bonds between the community and law
enforcement officers.
“I definitely feel like it brings me closer to my dad,” Gwendolyn
expresses, sitting across from the panel of the memorial where she
visits her dad’s name each year. “I feel like they made him memora-
ble in so many ways, just being here forever on this wall.”
Further down the wall from the DiNardo’s sentimental tribute,
another family gathers. Julia and Gracie Preslar are also longtime
survivors who have grown up attending Garden State C.O.P.S.
events. The sisters are now in high school, but when their father
William “Nichie” Preslar was lost to an auto accident in 2007, they
were 4 and 5 years old. Like Gwendolyn, the Preslar girls have grown
up getting to know their father by the stories that they’re told and
C.O.P.S. functions that bind them to his legacy.
“Without this organization, we probably wouldn’t be in th e place
we are now,” confirms Julia, 16. “We wouldn’t have made as many
friends who have supported us.”
As the years have gone by, visiting the memorial to frame their
father’s name with their hands has become tradition for the Preslar
girls. They insist it’s gotten easier each time. But when they see oth-
er young kids visit their loved one’s name on the memorial, they
can relate to the confusion and sorrow that the experience brings
early on.
“A long time ago, we were in their situation,” Julia notes.
Adds Gracie: “Now I like going to the wall, even though it’s upset-
ting. Our dad’s being recognized and memorialized.”
Ever since Trevor Ohlsen, his brother Arthur and mother Bonnie
attended National Police Week the first year following their officer’s
passing in 2003, visits to the National Law Enforcement Officers
Memorial have transitioned from a time of heavy grief into an ex-
perience of high honor.
“In the beginning it was really hard, because I was such a young
age,” Trevor remembers about finding out that his father, Arthur
Ohlsen, a Dover Local 107 officer, had passed away tragically on the
job. “Now I’m an adult and I work in law enforcement, following in
his footsteps doing the job he loved.”
Now, when Bonnie gathers at the memorial with Trevor, her hus-
band’s legacy is unmistakable. Not only by the name inscribed in
cement, but by the young man who stands next to her, now 28 and
a member of Morris County Sheriff’s Department Local 151, who
mimics her hero’s personality, looks and dedication to service.
Trevor is proud that he and his brother Arthur, a PBA member
of Parsippany-Troy Hills Local 131, can prolong the thin blue line
in the Ohlsen family. But he knows that he wouldn’t be able to do it
without the C.O.P.S. organization that has supported him through
the hurt and guided him to honor.
“You have everybody and they’re in the same situation as you,”
Trevor confides. “They know how it feels. They know the grieving
process and the healing process.” d
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