Paul Harvey, shown in this 2005 file photo, spent many years serving as security for Notre Dame coaches and has many remembrances of dignitaries that have passed through South Bend. Tribune File Photo/GREG SWIERCZ
South Bend Tribune

By Bill Moor South Bend Tribune

Paul Harvey, as tough as nails if he had to be, could still walk down West Washington Street in his South Bend police uniform like a goodwill ambassador.

People on both sides of the law knew him — and respected him.

“When a crime was committed, a lot of people would seek Paul out to give him information,” said Ed Wawrzyniak, his street partner back in the 1960s. “That’s how much respect he had in the community.”

Paul Harvey, a legendary figure in South Bend’s history, died Tuesday morning at the age of 82 after suffering through several strokes and poor health during the last 10 years.

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He was a Central High School basketball star on the 1953 state championship team … a heroic cop who once had a double-barreled shotgun held under his chin while putting an end to a hostage situation … the on-field security protection for Notre Dame football coaches Dan Devine, Gerry Faust and Lou Holtz … a McDonald’s franchise owner and township public safety director in the Benton Harbor area … and a man who soothed tensions between blacks and whites during the tumultuous ‘60s.

Paul truly was a man in full.

“You never met a nicer guy,” Wawrzyniak recalls. “He took me under his wing and when we would patrol together, they called us Salt and Pepper (Paul being black and Ed being white). Paul treated everyone alike.

“And he and (Paul’s wife) Sharon were always entertaining and making sure people had a good time.”

Paula Harvey, Paul’s daughter, remembers those days well when they lived across the road from the St. Joseph River on Belmont Avenue. “We were always having Notre Dame players over to the house,” she says. “My dad wanted them to have a home away from home — a comfortable environment where they could hang out.”

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One occasional visitor was a quarterback named Joe Montana. The story goes that after Montana graduated from Notre Dame and was playing for the San Francisco 49ers that he and Paul ran into each other. “I watch you on Sundays,” Paul said to Montana. “And I watch you on Saturdays,” the NFL star responded.

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