San Bruno B.A.R.T.

  SAN BRUNO--Russell Cunningham, San Bruno's second police chief, whose tenure with the department spanned 40 years, died in Monterey Friday, following a brief illness. He was 87.

  Born in San Francisco on August 13, 1915, Cunningham grew up in San Bruno and graduated from Burlingame High School. He began his law enforcement career at 23, after responding to a newspaper ad saying that the San Bruno Police Department was looking for its fifth employee.

  Cunningham rose through the ranks and became police chief in 1962, serving the city until his retirement in 1978.

  George Corey, a longtime friend and former San Bruno mayor, said Cunningham was well-respected and had a soft-spoken nature that could calm a room of angry homeowners.

  "I never heard Russ raise his voice," Corey said. "He was one of those people who had the ability to talk, and even if something was going on, people would listen."

  A 63-year resident of San Bruno, he shopped locally, raised his children in the city and was a "hometown kind of guy," Corey said.

  "No one was ever more loved in that city ... than Russ," he said

  San Bruno Police Capt. Russ Nicolopulos, said his former chief never shied from working directly with the community.

  "He was straightforward, a gentleman and very, very professional," he said.

  Active in groups including the Peninsula Peace Officers Association and the San Mateo County Police Chiefs, Cunningham was known to visit the police department after his retirement.

  Despite San Bruno's small-town beginnings, Cunningham saw his share of excitement during his career.

  Among the cases that stood out in his career, Cunningham told the San Bruno Herald upon his retirement, was the 1961 arrest of the "hat gang," four men who robbed banks and supermarkets throughout the country wearing topcoats and pork pie hats.

  Twelve FBI agents and San Bruno's entire department watched the robbers' San Bruno apartment for a week. One robber was killed and three were arrested during a subsequent shoot-out with police.

  In 1946, Cunningham himself was shot -- twice -- once in the abdomen and once in the wrist. He and another officer pulled over a man who had burglarized a local restaurant and shot at them as he ran from the car.

  The man was re-arrested, years later, for another burglary, and Cunningham had the opportunity to serve him breakfast in jail.

  "Really, I (held) no animosity to the fellow," Cunningham said later, in an interview in the 1970s with San Bruno's Bicentennial Heritage Committee.

  "That's his way of living, and I was getting paid to perform my duties, so I took breakfast to him in the morning."

  He is survived by his wife of 66 years, Rose Cunningham of Pebble Beach; daughters Suzanne Caughey of Prunedale and Rosanne Seratti of San Jose; brothers Robert and Donald Cunningham, both of Redwood City; four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

  Visitation will be held from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at St. Robert's Church, 1380 Crystal Springs Road in San Bruno. A rosary will follow. A funeral Mass will be celebrated at the church at 1:15 p.m. Thursday.