On Monday the Village of South Point lost a respected figure of its community. Carl Vance the retired Police Chief of the SPPD passed away at the age of 75.

“He was a great man,” Ron West mayor of South Point, said. “He served the village for a lot of years. He was still our chief when I became mayor in 2010 but I wasn’t able to work with him much because he was becoming too ill.”

At the time that Vance joined the SPPD the department was in its infancy and he was one of only two officers on the staff and according to West, he performed many tasks that were atypical of a village officer.

“He always went above and beyond to do the best job he could,” West said. “It was just he and one other guy in the early days of the department. He would do a lot of things like detective and investigative work that your typical officers don’t do now. He did a little bit of everything.”

West said he had known Vance for many years and considered him a friend whom he admired.

“I knew him from when we were younger men,” he said. “Him and my wife were from the same part of the county and he was a friend of mine. He was just a good man and I have nothing but admiration for him.”

Vance also was a former truck driver with Smith Transfer as well as a member of the South Point Masonic Lodge where he was a Master Mason. Vance’s funeral will be at 11 a.m. on Friday at St. Ann Catholic Church, in Chesapeake and local law enforcement will pay tribute to the former chief.

“I spoke to our current chief Chris Mahjer today,” West said. “Our police department and some others are working on putting together a nice tribute to him at the funeral. He was an asset to our village and he’ll be missed by everyone here.”