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Detective

Robert Frank Larke

New York City Police Department — New York, NY

September 11, 2001 →Veteran → Illness

End of Watch June 7, 2017

Age 73

Badge 2274

The Vigil Panel 372 · Column 2 · Line 2 ›

Gender Male

Incident Media Service The Sacrifice Military Memorials 1 Also Remembered Department 1,221

Incident

Robert F. Larke was the only child of parents who lived in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. He served four years in the United States Navy during the Vietnam War and, after his honorable discharge, returned to New York City and worked as a teller at Greenpoint Savings Bank. After seeing a flyer for the police examination while visiting friends in Queens, he took the test and joined the New York City Police Department on 3 April 1968, at the age of 24.

The next day Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, and recruits from the Police Academy were sent onto the streets in their gray uniforms. After the assassination of Robert Kennedy that June, the recruits stayed on patrol for the rest of their training. Officer Larke was later assigned to a highway car in a motorcycle unit and then to the 19th Precinct on the Upper East Side. While studying at night at the New York Institute of Technology and John Jay College of Criminal Justice, he took a day position as a criminal analyst. When budget cuts removed uniformed members from that post, he moved to the Central Personnel Index, where he was promoted to detective on 24 May 1988 and to second grade on 27 June 1997. He earned a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from the New York Institute of Technology in Old Westbury.

Detective Larke reached the mandatory retirement age and retired from the Central Personnel Index unit of the Employee Management Division on 30 November 2006, after 38 years with the department. He was known as a quiet, steady and dependable worker. He had spent many hours in the field during the rescue and recovery after the World Trade Center attacks of 2001, and the illnesses he developed in retirement were linked to that work. He died on 7 June 2017, at the age of 73 and a half, and his death was ruled in the line of duty.

He was survived by his wife and three sons. His name was added to the NYPD memorial wall at Battery Park City on 11 October 2019, and in 2019 also to the police memorial walls in Albany, New York, and Washington, D.C.

September 11, 2001 - The Years After

Detective Robert Frank Larke was assigned to the search and recovery at the World Trade Center site after September 11, 2001. He was 58 years old that fall.

He died on June 7, 2017 - 15 years and 8 months later - of an illness contracted there. He was 73.

He is one of 600 officers honored here, and one of 451 at New York City Police Department.

The most recent of these deaths was October 24, 2025.

Officers who worked the search, rescue, and recovery at the World Trade Center site breathed contaminated air for weeks and months afterward. Many developed cancers and respiratory disease, and they have gone on dying of it ever since.

Seventy-two officers were killed on the morning itself. Hundreds more have died in the years that followed. They are honored here together, because the same attack killed them all. With some it simply took longer.

Survivors

Survivors include his wife and three sons.

In Our Keeping

Permanent identifier: neuraspine_01krbxtp00xtf33jz13d7317bb
Stewardship: Maintained by NeuraWeb Global Inc.
Added to badge.nw: August 2, 2026
Last updated: September 22, 2026

Honored here by 1 tribute.

Are you family? This record can be claimed and maintained by those who knew Robert. Claim this record.

Also honored at requiem.nw, salute.nw — U.S. Navy. One record, 3 gates. Robert is one person.

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Tributes

You walked into it and it took years to finish the job.
Detective Larke served with the New York City Police Department.
Thank you for your service to the New York community. Gone but never to be forgotten.
Rest easy, Detective Larke.

— S. Vincent Anthony, U.S. Army 1985-1993

Agency

Department New York City Police Department

Type Police Department

Location New York, NY

Platform Identity nypd.newyork.ny.us.gov.nw

Service Record

End of Watch June 7, 2017

Age 73

Badge Number 2274

Gender Male

Assignment Employee Management Division, Central Personnel Index

Incident Details

Cause Illness

Weapon Aircraft; Passenger jet

Military Service

Robert Frank Larke served in the U.S. Navy (1962â1966) before joining law enforcement.

View full service record on salute.nw →

The Sacrifice · Illness

Robert is one of 2,028 officers lost to illness in the United States, 7.4% of the 27,552 remembered there.

34,103 officers are remembered on this memorial. Each number below is one of them.

Compare against

Time

In 2017, 52 officers in the United States were lost to illness, the 8th heaviest of 108 years on record. The heaviest was 2021, with 564.

Every year on record · United States

Who

Robert was 73. Of the 1,996 lost to illness in the United States whose age is recorded, half were between 42 and 58; the middle age was 51.

Age at death

Where he stood among them

Age by years of service

III

When

June holds 4.9% of these deaths in the United States; October holds the most, 14.9%. Wednesdays: 14%.

By month

By day of the week

How

Illness deaths account for 7.4% of all 27,552 deaths in the United States, the 3rd most common cause. The weapon recorded was aircraft; passenger jet, in 29.5% of these deaths.

Every cause

Weapons recorded