Eddie Carmack of the Pitt Police department, who rose quickly from patrolman to detective and member of the SWAT team in his six-year career, died June 22, 2021 at 49, following a three-year battle with cancer.
As Chief of Police James K. Loftus notes, Carmack worked half of his time at Pitt under the diagnosis.
“He worked hard,” Loftus said. “I’ve been around this kind of work for 40 years and I’ve never seen anybody handle anything like this with as much grace, courage and optimism. He had a world-class amount of persistence. I’ve never known anyone who made as much effort to get better.”
Through tough medical treatments, Loftus recalls, “he showed up here way more often” than anyone would have expected. “He realized he had a responsibility to the police department and never wanted to shirk his responsibility. He was just put together very uniquely — just very driven in everything that he did, and that probably allowed him to surpass any time limits the doctors had put on him before.”
Loftus remembers their last conversation, a short while ago. Carmack, he recalls, “apologized for leaving the department short-handed. He was just cut from a different cloth.”
Carmack’s police career also included stints as an officer for the city of Charleston, S.C., and at CIA headquarters.
Carmack graduated from Chartiers Valley High School in 1990 and attended Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
He is survived by his son Blake; father Patrick Earl; sister Suzanne; and nephews and nieces Christopher, Brandon and Sophia Celentano and Patricia Reardon.
Memorial gifts are suggested to the Eddie Carmack Memorial Fund.
— Marty Levine