Sheriff’s Museum Honors Retired Captain for 99th Birthday

The oldest Sheriff's retiree, Leland McPhie sitting on the left shares some 99th birthday cake with San Diego County Sheriff's Museum volunteers and fellow retirees. He was the youngest sheriff’s captain of the San Diego County Jail when he retired in 1969. Now at 98, Leland McPhie is the oldest living San Diego County Sheriff’s retiree.

He will celebrate his 99^th birthday on Sunday, but the docents at the San Diego County Sheriff’s Museum wanted to start celebrating early.

“I like it, I appreciate this,” McPhie proclaimed Wednesday morning in between television and newspaper interviews about his career with the Sheriff’s Department.

Docent staff initially invited McPhie to the museum to help them identify people and events in their photographs archive. After speaking with him, they decided they wanted to honor him for his career accomplishments as well, said Rusty Burkett, who works as a volunteer at the museum in Old Town.  

McPhie joined the department at 26 years old in 1940 and was assigned to the downtown jail. He took a few years off to serve in the Army during World War II. In the Sheriff’s Department, he quickly ascended the ranks to sergeant, lieutenant and ultimately captain. He retired at age 55 after working for four sheriffs.

He spent his entire career working in the jail, first in the jail built in 1911 and then in the newer one built in the 1960s. His biggest career highlight was helping design the 1960s downtown jail with the architect.

In 1998, a new Central Jail was built and the old jail, the Central Detention Facility, on Front Street now houses the psychiatric security unit. McPhie also helped write the policy and procedures manual for deputies working in the jails in 1940, even though he had only worked there a few months. A copy of the typewritten manual is on display at the museum.

On Wednesday, he recalled his first day on the job when he might have used that same manual. He was in one of the first batches of civil service employees to be hired as deputies. He said he scored sixth among all the applicants and he would have scored higher but he didn’t know about local government, not even the name of the mayor at the time. He was simply told to report to the jail at 4 p.m. and the other deputy left promptly at 5 p.m. McPhie relied on an inmate trustee to train him about the procedures in the jail, and called him “my bodyguard.” In return for good guidance, McPhie said he rewarded the inmate with extra food.  

“Looking back it seems kind of strange that all I was told was just to report at 4 o’clock,” he said, referring to the lack of formal training. 

Museum docent Dick Beall, who retired in 1986, said he remembers working with McPhie at the jail and he came in to share some birthday cake with his former supervisor. 

“He was a legend,” Beall said then started telling everyone how McPhie’s nickname among the jail staff was “Silver Fox.” McPhie was obviously amused as he listened to the story. It turned out McPhie got the nickname because he was quiet and stealthy and had silver hair.  

Beall said that to stay on McPhie’s good side, you just had to give him the house count and tell him the money was right every day. Years later, Beall became a captain and ran the South Bay Detention Facility and was given the nickname of Bear in the Woods, though he also never heard anyone call him that to his face.

Leland McPhie High School PhotographWhile working at the jail, McPhie went back to San Diego State and earned his degree. He attributes his success within the Sheriff’s Department to getting a good education. He was quickly promoted to sergeant after only five months on the job and then did that for only nine months before he was promoted to lieutenant. At the time he was promoted to captain, there were only three for the whole department and he was chosen for the job over other lieutenants, some who had been there longer than him.

“I felt pretty good about that,” McPhie said of his rise through the ranks.

If asked, he would advise ambitious deputies to “Get as much education as you can.”  

On Wednesday, McPhie spoke of some of the booking procedures he streamlined, how he designed a lock that was patented, and how back then there might be 20 to 25 women inmates who were in their own cell block and had to have a “matron” sheriff’s female employee sleep in the jail overnight.  

“It’s a living history and we want to get it on video to give to his family and keep for our archives,” said Burkett. “And we’re going to try to get him down here some more because we have an archive of photos.”

After his retirement, McPhie served as an advisor for the military during the Vietnam War. He has also always been athletic and competed until he was 96 years old in the Senior Olympics. He has won many gold and silver medals in the track and field competition.