Gordon "Corky" Hamby's family believes the former Denver police officer had a guardian angel.

There were three instances where he could've died, they said, including two times when the situation looked so bleak he was given his last rites.

"He was too stubborn to die," said Mr. Hamby's wife of 56 years, Helen.

"He always said he had things to do," added his daughter, Carol Hayward. "He couldn't go because he had things to do."

Like traveling around the world for example, or discovering great fishing spots and, of course, working as a police officer for 25 years.

Having done all of that and more, Mr. Hamby died July 15, from injuries he suffered after falling at his home 14 months ago. He was 77.

Born in Ogden, Utah, on Aug. 6, 1929, Mr. Hamby quickly developed two lifelong passions: fishing and caring for animals. His family remembers that once, after a childhood fishing trip in Wyoming, he tried to rescue wandering ducks by putting them in the trunk of the family car. Asked why he had put them there, the boy replied he wanted to take them home.

"Well, they were just walking around doing nothing," he said.

Mr. Hamby came to Denver at 18, when he was stationed at Lowry Air Force Base. In 1948 he met his wife, Helen, at Lakeside Amusement Park. She swept him off his feet - making him ride the roller coaster repeatedly.

"Thirteen times that poor man rode the roller coaster," Hayward said.

Mr. Hamby would later say he knew right then he would marry Helen. It turned out to be a wise decision - on more than one level.

It was during a leave of absence from his service in Korea, when he was home exchanging vows, that Mr. Hamby dodged death for the first time.

While he was in Denver getting married, there was a bombing where he had been stationed. No one survived.

After the war, Mr. Hamby joined the Denver Police Department. There, in the early '70s, he faced death a second time when he arrested a drunken driver. The suspect, sitting in the back of the patrol car, pulled Mr. Hamby over the seat with such force that he bent his badge and injured his spine so badly that doctors told him he would never walk again.

"Being of a stubborn mind, he did (walk again)," Helen said.

And, he continued fishing in Yellowstone, Wyoming and the Platte River, taking his three daughters and son with him.

In 1978, Mr. Hamby suffered a heart attack. He was given last rites but once again refused to die.

After he retired in 1982, Mr. Hamby traveled with his wife, visiting Europe and Asia, stopping in Korea where, his wife said, he was laughed at because of his blond hair and mustache. But for Mr. Hamby's family, his steely blue eyes were his most distinguishing physical feature.

They were eyes that had the power to make you confess to anything, they said.

When Mr. Hamby fell at his home more than a year ago, he was trying to do something nice for his wife on Mother's Day.

"He got up to get me more coffee," Helen said.

She said she thought his falling was ironic, given all the days his life was in danger as a police officer.

"I always thought he was safe at home. I wouldn't have to worry," she said.

Besides his wife and daughter, he is survived by daughters Catherine Boxer and Patricia Chivers, both of Greenwood Village; son Gordon B. Hamby, of Commerce City; eight grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

Memorial contributions may be made to El Jebel Shrine Transportation Fund, the Denver Police Department Retirement Fund and the Denver Dumb Friends League.

Burial was July 20 at Fort Logan National Cemetery.

morenoi@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2895

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