Sylvia M. Bicanovsky

1930 - 2019

(News story) Sylvia M. Bicanovsky, Rossford's first female police officer and a beloved long-time chief secretary, died July 18 at Hospice of Northwest Ohio in Perrysburg. She was 89.

Mrs. Bicanovsky died from pancreatic cancer, relatives said.

During her career with the police department, Mrs. Bicanovsky worked primarily as the police chief's secretary, but sometimes answered wee-hours calls to perform pat-down weapons searches on women taken into custody, said Frank Shinaver, a retired Rossford officer who first met her when he joined the department in 1978.

"Every good boss has a great secretary," Mr. Shinaver said. "Well, every good chief had a greater secretary that told them how to run the job. Sylvia was so personable and knew the people so well in Rossford. There wasn't too many people in Rossford that she didn't know or know about them - that's just the way it was."

She had the full arrest powers of a sworn officer and also regularly arranged police services for Rossford residents such as house checks during vacation and preparing routine reports and memos.

Mrs. Bicanovsky served as a mentor to younger officers in the police department, said her son David Jones.

Mr. Shinaver described her as an extremely organized person who also acted as "the mom to all the officers on the Rossford police department, male and female."

The chief's secretary was instrumental in organizing and running the Almester Memorial golf outing - a police department fund-raiser for nearly three decades that supported a scholarship fund for high-school students planning law-enforcement careers, Mr. Shinaver added.

"She was extremely organized for that and for the department itself," Mr. Shinaver said. "She could remember everything. If it wasn't for Sylvia, we'd have never gotten that golf outing going the way it did."

According to a November, 1989, Rossford Record-Journal report, Mrs. Bicanovsky took juveniles being held for Wood County to her own home to shower and clean themselves up, as the jail's facilities were inadequate.

"I still have people come in and say thanks," Mrs. Bicanovsky told the paper at the time. "I treated them like one of my own. Sometimes that's all they needed. I felt sorry for those kids."

Born March 25, 1930, to Raymond and Clara Hurley in St. James, Minn., she graduated St. James High School in 1948. She moved to Ohio in early 1964 and became Rossford's village secretary in 1967, making her one of only two female staff at the time in the municipal building, which also housed Rossford's jail.

When the Rossford Police Department determined in the early 1970s that it needed a female officer to handle female prisoners, Mrs. Bicanovsky agreed to attend police academy and become Rossford's first sworn police woman.

It was also about that time that she married Raymond Bicanovsky, on Sept. 4, 1971.

Mrs. Bicanovsky was a member of the Fraternal Order of Police No. 40, the Rossford Eagles, and the Rossford American Legion Auxiliary.

Beyond her role in the police department and Rossford community, Mrs. Bicanovsky was known as a personable individual and a great mother, Mr. Jones and Mrs. Bicanovsky's daughter Karen Jones said.

In her spare time, she enjoyed being around people, boating with her husband and friends, and playing euchre.

After her retirement in 1995, Mrs. Bicanovsky spent time traveling with her husband. Over the last 22 years, the couple spent their winters at a retirement home in Mission, Texas, Mr. Jones said. When her cancer became terminal, a Mission family - whom Mr. Jones had never met before - traveled to Perrysburg to visit her in her final days.

"No matter where she went ... these people came all the way up here to see her," Mr. Jones said. "[She was] mom to so many people down there."

She is survived by her husband, Raymond Bicanovsky; son, David Jones; daughters, Kathlene Uhler and Karen Jones; stepson Michael Bicanovsky; 11 grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by a sister and a son.

A memorial service will begin at 11 a.m. Tuesday in All Saints Catholic Church, 628 Lime City Rd. in Rossford, where the family will begin receiving guests in the narthex at 10 a.m. Sujkowski-Walker Funeral Home is handling arrangements.

The family suggests tributes to the Northwest Ohio Alzheimer's Association.

This is a news story by Asha Prihar. Contact her at aprihar@theblade.com or 419-724-6134.