Roll of Honor
Biography
Keith began his community service at an early age attaining the rank of Eagle Scout with Troop 19, Oakwood. He joined the Paulding County Sheriff’s Office in 1979. He served there until 1992 while staying on the Sheriff Reserves, he then joined the Allen County Sheriff’s Office in Fort Wayne. After 25 years, he retired from that department in 2017 where he served as a training officer. He subsequently returned full-time to the Paulding County Sheriff’s Office serving as a Captain and Jail Commander. A career workaholic, he also worked part-time for Parkview Police and Public Safety since 2011 and was an EMT for several years. In his 41 years of law enforcement and more than 47 years of community service, he touched many lives and was a role model for countless citizens. Keith lived in a log cabin on a pond with his wife, Julia, of twenty years where he planted trees and loved to be outdoors. Family was incredibly important to him; he loved his stepdaughters as his own and was close with his siblings. He was a large teddy bear of a man who was quick to say I love you; Keith’s laughter filled a room. He loved horror movies, martial arts, true crime, and Adam-12. An animal lover, he worked to rehabilitate wild raptors and was known to feed stray animals. The word was better with him in it. It had a deafening silence with him gone, and a lot less love.
In Our Keeping
- Permanent identifier
BO-US-OH-73E0C6D7- 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
Officer Keith Leatherman served with the Paulding County Sheriff.
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
Keith Leatherman 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 OH, 9 of 991 officers were honored for deaths connected to the weight of the job — 0.9% of this state's fallen. That is 0.1 percentage points above the national rate of 0.8%.
National Cause Distribution
How Suicide compares to all causes of officer death in the memorial record. Keith Leatherman's cause is highlighted.
How Keith Leatherman Compares
When Suicide Deaths Occur
Monthly distribution of Suicide deaths across the full memorial record. Keith Leatherman is highlighted in Oct.