Keith Aanenson is perhaps best remembered as Luverne’s final police chief before the city of Luverne and Rock County formed a joint law enforcement department in 1998.
Aanenson was born and grew up in Rock County and started his career in April 1967 when the Luverne Police Department still operated out of a small brick building on Main Street just west of the Methodist Church.
He was 24 years old and drove a black and white squad car equipped only with spotlights a two-way radio, a siren and a red, rotating "gumball" light.
The Star Herald reported that Aanenson was hired to replace Jim Johannsen, who became a sheriff’s deputy in 1967.
The following year, in 1968, the department moved to City Hall, and in 1983 to the former jail (now the Chamber office, Herreid Military Museum and Brandenburg Gallery), where it shared dispatch services with the county sheriff’s office.
In 1979 Aanenson was appointed chief of police. Officers at the time included Clyde Menning, Mike Wynia, Jerry Vorderbruggen, Dave Bower and Don Sogge.
In 1998 the city and county formed a joint law enforcement department and built a new office on North Blue Mound Avenue. There was no longer a Luverne Police Department and no longer a chief of police.
The timing coincided with a retirement for Aanenson at age 55.
By that time he had developed the DARE and McGruff programs and continued to volunteer for them.
“I am hopeful that the programs and connections with schools and community will not go by the wayside,” he wrote in his resignation letter. “They are important and part of community-based policing. … People remember when an officer unlocks a vehicle but do not say much when he or she takes a theft or vandalism report.”
After more than three decades in law enforcement, he spent nearly as many years volunteering for local organizations.
He was a longtime volunteer with the Tri-State Band Festival Committee and was a founding member of the Luverne Optimist Club, heading up the Bike Rodeo and Sandbox Fill programs for many years.
In retirement he assumed responsibilities of his father’s locksmith business, which he continued to operate until recent years.
Aanenson died Sunday, Jan. 17, at the age of 78. His complete obituary appears on page 7.