The Middletown police department posted on social media it was “devastated and deeply saddened” by Walton’s death.
Walton’s father, Bob Walton Sr., retired as a captain with the Middletown Division of Police in 1976, then served as Butler County sheriff from 1976-1988. He served in law enforcement for 40 years.
Chuck Walton’s son, Eric Walton, spent his 28-year career with the Monroe Police Department before he took medical retirement in 2019 due to heart issues. They family had more than 100 years of combined service in law enforcement.
Middletown Sgt. Cris Kelly, one of Walton’s close friends, said the Waltons are “a police family for sure.”
Kelly, hired as a police dispatcher in 1990, worked with Walton and he often called him “Uncle Chuck” because he was “more like family than a friend,” he said. He said Walton was honest with everybody and he had a way of putting people at ease.
“He never thought he was better than anyone else,” Kelly said. “I remember he always told me, ‘It doesn’t take a dime to be nice to somebody and that may come back 10 fold.’”
That was evident one night when Walton was dispatched to a bar fight. Someone Walton had arrested earlier came to his defense, Kelly said.
Walton also was known to drive someone he arrested by an ATM so they could withdraw money to bail themselves out of jail, and Walton’s son said his father wouldn’t handcuff someone in front of their children.
“He was a good example of a police officer,” Eric Walton said.
When his father worked the 3-11 shift, Walton, then a young boy, said he’d get excited when he saw his father’s police car pulled into the driveway around dinner time. When his father wasn’t working, Walton said he would wear his father’s boots and hat around the house and carry some of his equipment.
After Eric Walton was hired in Monroe, he sometimes rode with his father to “see how he treated people.”
He said his father also enjoyed fishing.
“He was a different person on the lake,” he said.
Arrangements are pending.
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