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Albert B. Risdorfer (4/29/24 – 4/8/98) Dad, Veteran, Police Officer, Hero – posted by Al Risdorfer, his Son « Honor My Hero

"We don't have to turn to our history books for heroes. They're all around us."

President Reagan

"Nurture your minds with great thoughts. To believe in the heroic makes heroes."

Benjamin Disraeli

"True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost."

Arthur Ashe

"If we lived in a State where virtue was profitable, common sense would make us good, and greed would make us saintly… But since in fact we see that avarice, anger, envy, pride, sloth, lust and stupidity commonly profit far beyond humility, chastity, fortitude, justice and thought , and have to choose, to be human at all … why then, perhaps we must stand fast a little--even at the risk of being heroes."

St. Thomas Moore in A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt

"True heroism consists in being superior to the ills of life, in whatever shape they may challenge us to combat."

Napoleon Bonaparte

"The characteristic of genuine heroism is its persistency. All men have wandering impulses, fits and starts of generosity. But when you have resolved to be great, abide by yourself, and do not weakly try to reconcile yourself with the world. The heroic cannot be the common, nor the common the heroic."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"A hero is a man who is afraid to run away."

English Proverb

""It doesn't take a hero to order men into battle. It takes a hero to be one of those men who goes into battle."

General Norman Schwarzkopf

"The prudent see only the difficulties, the bold only the advantages, of a great enterprise the hero sees both diminishes the former and makes the latter preponderate, and so conquers."

Johann Kaspar Lavater

" We have every right to dream heroic dreams. Those who say that we're in a time when there are no heroes, they just don't know where to look."

President Reagan

"Who is a hero? He who turns his enemy into a friend."

The Talmud

"I think of a hero as someone who understands the degree of responsibility that comes with his freedom."

Bob Dylan

"When the first Superman movie came out I was frequently asked "What is a hero?" …My answer was that a hero is someone who commits a courageous action without considering the consequences… Now my definition is completely different. I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles."

Christopher Reeve

"When you feel the world is against you or you give up hope, you look at your heroes and say, "They were able to do it. They had hard times and a lot of opposition, but they got through it." Then you feel, "I can do it too."

John Leguizamo

"Heroism is the divine relation which, in all times, unites a great man to other men."

Thomas Carlyle

"If everybody was satisfied with himself there would be no heroes."

Mark Twain

"It is surmounting difficulties that makes heroes."

Louis Pasteur

"I am of certain convinced that the greatest heroes are those who do their duty in the daily grind of domestic affairs whilst the world whirls as a maddening dreidel."

Florence Nightingale

Albert B. Risdorfer (4/29/24 – 4/8/98) Dad, Veteran, Police Officer, Hero – posted by Al Risdorfer, his Son

Albert B. Risdorfer (4/29/24 – 4/8/98) Dad, Veteran, Police Officer, Hero – posted by Al Risdorfer, his Son

My Dad was an incredible, loving father who sacrificed much to care for his wife, kids and the others in his family every day of his life. He often worked 3 jobs to make ends meet, and yet never had a night out on his own, or bought anything of value for himself. I don’t recall him ever having any money in his pocket. It all went to his wife for the house and to us, his kids.

He was a man of great faith and principle, among which were an overbearing sense of patriotism and desire to be of service to his community. He was a man of deep religious spirituality who, till close to his death when his body would not allow him to do so, ended each day on his knees by his bedside to say his evening prayers, just as he had done since he was a boy. Yet he was a man also of this world, always quick with a silly joke, and hearty laugh. He had soft spot for dogs, and loved sports and TV. And although he loved a good beer, a Manhattan cocktail with a dash of maraschino cherry juice was his favorite drink. And Man!! Did he love to eat! He preferred hamburger over steak any day. he loved shrimp!…and of course his wife Justina’s Italian cooking. He was the kind of guy who, when he’d return from a vacation could recall every meal in intricate detail, and never mention the weather, the sights, the hotel. Like I said…he LOVED to eat!

He served honorably in World War II in the European theater and then for years later, served in various offices of the local Veterans of Foreign Wars post working for veterans rights and commemorating those who had given the ultimate sacrifice to keep us free. But if you were to ask Dad what he’d say most defined his life, it would be his service as a police officer. He followed in the footsteps of his own Dad and served for 17 years as a member of the Philadelphia Police Department and then for an additional 10 years as a special agent for the Pennsylvania State Crime Commission. He was a good cop, an honest cop, a diligent cop. He was THE penultimate professional and took enormous pride in his work. He died in 1998 after fighting a horrible disease called Shy-Drager Syndrome. But for me, and for all of us who recall his memory, he is forever our hero.

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