Ready for relaxation

By NATE HUBBARD/Staff

Sgt. Don Orfield has been retired for more than 13 years.
In April, though, he might finally get a chance to unwind.
After retiring from the Virginia State Police in 1995, with 40 years of service, Orfield took a break for only a month before jumping back into law enforcement employment with the Wythe County Sheriff’s Office.
Orfield, 73, swears he’s finished for good this time.
Effective March 31, the sergeant is stepping down from his position as the Victim/Witness Program director for the Sheriff’s Office, a program which he helped establish more than a decade ago.
“I’ve already had my party,” he said during an interview in his office Friday afternoon, indicating that he wants the end of his second career to be a low-key affair. “I just want to relax while I still feel good.”
Sheriff Doug King said Orfield’s 53 years of law enforcement experience will be sorely missed.
“To me he’s just an amazing guy to work in law enforcement for as long as he’s had and not be cynical – he’s very upbeat,” King said. “I’m going to miss him on a personal level and on a professional level.”
During his time at the Sheriff’s Office, Orfield has been a bright spot during tumultuously times for countless crime victims and witnesses.
After beginning his tenure at the Sheriff’s Office working with the Virginia STOP Program, which mostly assists domestic violence victims, Orfield became the director of the broader Victim/Witness Program when it was created in July 1997 through a grant provided by the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services.
According to a Sheriff’s Office brochure on the program, it “is designed to ensure that crime victims and witnesses receive fair and compassionate treatment while participating in the criminal justice system.”
Services range from collecting restitution and helping victims prepare impact statements to providing protection and courtroom assistance.
“We just help a victim in any way we can,” Orfield said. “The purpose of this program is to guide a victim through the judicial process. Victims are devastated; a lot of them have never been to court in their life.”
After serving in a variety of roles with the state police, including dispatcher, trooper and investigator, Orfield said his Sheriff’s Office job has been rewarding in other ways.
“It’s a different drumbeat,” Orfield said.
A drumbeat that Orfield marches perfectly in step with, King said.
“I just can’t say enough about the job that he’s done while he’s been here,” King said. “I could go on about him for hours.”
King said Orfield has a knack for treating all his co-workers and the people he interacts with in the Victim/Witness Program with the same respect, regardless of their job title or economic status.
The sheriff recalled that Orfield’s attitude toward him personally has been the same since King started as a jailer in 1983 all the way through his appointment to the sheriff position in 2005.
“He’s always been the same guy from the first day I met him, right on through,” King said. “He was just as nice to me back then as he is now.”
Orfield acknowledged making a conscious effort to give each of the victims and witnesses that he works with his full attention and compassion.
“One of my favorite things to do is to help someone I’ve never seen before and will never see again,” he said. “Just help them and disappear.”
He also acknowledged that it will be hard to replace the satisfaction he gets from his job of helping others, but he said he thinks he’ll be able to help the community in different ways through his volunteer work with Bethel United Methodist Church and civic organizations such as the Masonic Lodge, Moose Lodge and American Legion.
The Smyth County native plans to stay in Wytheville, where he started as a state police dispatcher in 1954 and where he has lived continuously since 1979.
The Sheriff’s Office is going through applications this week for Orfield’s position and hopes to have someone in place as the new Victim/Witness Program director by April 1.
While a new director will be found, King said no one will be able to replace Orfield.
“Fifty some years in law enforcement is extremely rare,” King said. “It’s almost like the end of an era.”
Nate Hubbard can be reached at 228-6611 or .