Roll of Honor
Biography
Max Van D'Huynslager was many things to many people — and those who knew him never stop saying so. Kind, good-natured, genuine. The kind of man people miss out loud, years later. It never gets old.
He loved freshwater fishing and had a gift for baseball, earning scholarships to Broward Community College and William Penn University in Iowa. He pitched. His twin brother caught. They made a team in more ways than one. As a boy, Max built a baseball card collection that turned out to be far more nuanced than anyone realized — certainly more than his partner knew through twenty years and a dozen moves, hauling those boxes from place to place without ever understanding what was in them. The questions that remain about those cards are a reminder that the people we love keep revealing themselves, even after they're gone.
Max was a loyal friend — the kind who kept people for decades. He was also a tremendous father to his daughter Maci. They were close in the way that mattered most: constant companions, easy with each other, inseparable.
Professionally, Sergeant D'Huynslager carried a near-spotless 17-year record across corrections and law enforcement. His peers respected him. His subordinates looked up to him. He earned that.
Suicide carries a stigma that can be brutal to the people left behind. In Max's case, a small and loyal circle of colleagues stayed. They kept in contact with Maci. They showed up. His partner now volunteers with the agency's peer support group as a licensed mental health professional on the CISM team — not always an easy role to hold, for deeply personal reasons. But it's a way to stay connected to something Max believed in: the bonds built through how you live, and how you serve.
In Our Keeping
- Permanent identifier
BO-US-FL-8422F0B1- Stewardship
- Maintained by NeuraWeb Global Inc.
- Added to badge.nw
- April 2, 2026
- Last updated
- July 23, 2026
Honored here by 1 sentinel - 1 tribute.
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Tributes
Sergeant Max D’Huynslager served with the Highlands County Sheriff's Office.
Thank you for your service. We will always remember your sacrifice.
You belong on this wall. Gone but never to be forgotten.
Rest easy, brother.
— S. Vincent Anthony, U.S. Army 1985-1993
Agency
Service Record
Incident Details
Sergeant Max Van D’Huynslager is one of 256 officers honored for deaths connected to the weight of the job across the full record of this memorial — 0.8% of all 32,508 officers honored here.
In FL, 13 of 1,008 officers were honored for deaths connected to the weight of the job — 1.3% of this state's fallen. That is 0.5 percentage points above the national rate of 0.8%.
At Highlands County Sheriff's Office, 1 of 4 officers on record were honored for deaths connected to the weight of the job — 25% of this agency's fallen.
National Cause Distribution
How Suicide compares to all causes of officer death in the memorial record. Max Van D’Huynslager's cause is highlighted.
How Max Van D’Huynslager Compares
When Suicide Deaths Occur
Monthly distribution of Suicide deaths across the full memorial record. Max Van D’Huynslager is highlighted in Jan.
Others Who Wore This Badge
3 officers from Highlands County Sheriff's Office are honored on badge.nw.
