Robert E. Hesse, 86, a former Chicago police officer and Cook County Sheriff’s Police Department captain, died Sunday, Feb. 3, of bone cancer in Adams County Memorial Hospital in Friendship, Wis. Mr. Hesse worked as a Chicago police motorcycle officer from the late 1940s to the early 1950s, escorting celebrities such as President Harry Truman, said his former police partner, Fred Hartman. Mr. Hesse left the Chicago police and was an officer for the Milwaukee Road railroad for several years. He built a house in the south suburb of Markham in 1953 and the next year joined the Cook County Sheriff’s Police Department. Mr. Hesse was a pilot and his airborne traffic reports for the Sheriff’s Police Department were broadcast on television, said his son Thomas. Mr. Hesse was an inheritance tax examiner for the state treasurer. Later, Mr. Hesse worked as a safety director for a company that transports mobile homes, Morgan Drive Away, in Elkhart, Ind. In the 1970s, he became a licensed private detective who investigated car, truck and small-aircraft accidents for several law firms. He also had his own agency for eight years and was commissioner of the Markham Police Department, his son said. Other survivors include three sons, Thomas, James and John; a daughter, Donna Quasebarth; 21 grandchildren; and 19 great-grandchildren. Mass will be said at 9:30 a.m. Thursday inSt. Gerard Majella Church, 16130 Clifton Park Ave., Markham.
