Reading Patrolman Willard H. Santel
Age: 23
Served:  1½ years

On May 8, 1945, Patrolman Santel, of 218 East Columbia Avenue, while on a motorcycle, pursued a violator on Old Wright Highway (now Interstate 75) when he crashed into a retaining wall in Lockland.  Suffering from a compound fracture of the tibia and fibula, he was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital.  While hospitalized, he developed bilateral pneumonia and died May 29, 1945.

Patrolman Santel left a wife, Patricia, and was apparently childless.  Though only 23, his father, mother, and brother preceded him in death.  He was buried on June 2, 1945, in Section D of Saints Peter and Paul Cemetery with his family. 

Please contact Director@GCPHS.com if you have any information about this incident or the officer or his picture, artifiacts, and/or relatives..