LITTLETON — When Matt King was named Littleton’s next police chief, his appointment drew a crowd and a standing ovation.
“We couldn’t have a better cop to run this town,” Select Board member James Karr said at the time.
After devoting close to four decades serving Littleton and its residents — as an officer, sergeant, lieutenant, deputy chief and chief — King passed away after a battle with cancer on July 3. He was 63 years old.
King’s career in law enforcement began in York, Maine, as a patrolman before he came to Littleton in the early 1980s. After serving 12 years as deputy chief, King took over for then-Chief John Kelly, leading the department from September 2014 until his retirement July 1, 2018.
Prior to joining the Littleton force, current Chief Matt Pinard worked as a police officer in Ayer for eight years, often running into King while he was a patrol officer.
Pinard succeeded King in 2018, but the two worked together for more than a decade, with King as the deputy chief in charge of detectives and Pinard — alongside current Deputy Chief Jeff Patterson — on the detective bureau. Pinard became a patrol sergeant before he took the top role upon King’s retirement.
Even after King left, Pinard said they’d often meet for coffee about twice a month to catch up. The pair, accompanied by King’s black Labrador retriever, Bud, traveled across New England to go duck hunting, Pinard said. It’s hard to believe he’s gone, he said.
“He was a friend and a mentor, working together,” Pinard said of King. “We did a lot of hunting on our off-time together … The rule was, when we’d go out and we would go hunting, we wouldn’t talk about work.”
King’s passion for policing manifested in a desire to serve local youth — he founded the now-defunct Littleton Police Explorers and, with the school resource officer, oversaw the start of the Student Police Academy, a weeklong summer program for local kids to learn about police work and responsibilities. The camp is still “thriving,” Patterson said.
To Patterson, “everything was about the community” for King, and that included his officers.
“He always had an open-door policy. You could go in and talk to him about anything,” Patterson said. “He was going to be fair and everything else, but if something was done wrong or discipline needed to be done, he made sure it was done appropriately and the department ran the way it’s supposed to run.”
Littleton Police also hold a monthly veterans’ breakfast at the Council on Aging, a tradition that grew out of King’s love for cooking, that has returned after its hiatus over the pandemic. The event brings in 15-30 veterans each time, Pinard said.
Though he no longer held the “chief” title, Detective Pat O’Donoghue continued addressing King as such. It demonstrated the sincere respect O’Donoghue had for him, how he valued his contributions to the police and thanked him for entrusting him with his duties.
He spent much of his retirement years traveling, including to Iceland, a destination he raved about whenever he visited the office, O’Donoghue said. It inspired O’Donoghue to take his own trip to Iceland next month, partly as an homage to his fallen friend.
If you asked anyone in town, they’d say King would “give his shirt off his back for anybody,” he said. King believed that it was his job to improve the lives of those he served, O’Donoghue said.
“He was a cop’s cop,” O’Donoghue said. “He’s the old school guy, which you don’t see anymore, and that’s a dying breed.”
It seems rare to hear of such a long career in policing nowadays, O’Donoghue added, but King “truly cared” for his small town.
“They don’t make them like him anymore,” he said. “They really don’t.”
The department shared the news of King’s passing in a Facebook post, remarking that King’s “unwavering commitment and integrity” left a mark.
“As we mourn the loss of a remarkable leader, let us remember the impact Chief Matthew King had on the Littleton Police Department and the community at large,” the post reads. “His legacy will live on, not only in the memories of those who knew and worked alongside him, but those he also came in contact with.”
Former Littleton Town Administrator Keith Bergman, who served from 2007 until 2018, recalls King’s success in leading the department to certification and accreditation through the Massachusetts Police Accreditation Commission. The move, he wrote in an email, “was a proud accomplishment for the Town and a measure of Chief King’s leadership of the department.”
Only through “the high standards” can police agencies achieve accreditation, Bergman wrote, which further reflects King’s tenure as chief.
“A thoughtful and caring person, Matt was a valued member of the Town of Littleton’s leadership team, and was devoted to the community and to the people he served,” Bergman wrote. “I will miss him.”
A celebration of King’s life will take place Aug. 5, the location of which has yet to be determined.