Bartholomew County Sheriff’s deputies and administration mourned the loss of a corrections officer who had brightened his co-workers’ lives for nearly a decade.
Sgt. Grover Crouch, 64, died at 9:42 p.m. Monday at Columbus Regional Hospital. Crouch had worked the day shift at the sheriff’s department the day of his death.
Sheriff’s deputies said they were deeply saddened by his unexpected death, some of them still processing losing their friend so suddenly.
“He literally was a leader back in the jail to the younger officers,” Sheriff Matt Myers said.
The sheriff said Crouch was not only respected by his fellow co-workers, many of whom he mentored, but also by the inmates he transported and interacted with in the jail.
“The judges loved him,” Myers said of Crouch’s interactions at the Bartholomew County Courthouse. “He was a remarkable man. So kind and loving to everyone. A lot of people looked up to him. He will be missed.”
The sheriff described Crouch as patient, kind and generous, saying the sergeant would do anything for anyone and truly loved his job and those he worked with.
“I don’t think we will ever be able to replace him,” Myers said.
Crouch joined the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department nine years ago, and his co-workers knew he had served a stint in the U.S. Coast Guard and had previously worked as an over-the-road truck driver.
His main duty for the department was supervising and being the go-to guy on transports, from arranging transportation for inmates to get to the courthouse, to in-state and out-of-state transports and security for those moves and within the courthouse.
Jail Commander Maj. John Martoccia said that while that was Crouch’s main responsibility, the officer would also fill in on other duties, including courthouse security and even the sheriff’s work crews, in which inmates go out to mow county properties or clean up trash.
“He just filled in Friday to help out with a work crew,” Martoccia said. “He never complained. Very seldom would he ever take time off. You could just count on him.”
Crouch was the type of person who would see something needed to be done, and then take care of it, Martoccia said.
He credited Crouch with helping him through the transition of becoming jail commander, something that he said he would never forget.
Martoccia said Crouch was also known for his volunteer efforts, driving the sheriff’s department Ethnic Expo float in the parade and helping at youth camps and cookouts. When Martoccia told his daughter, who had been on the Ethnic Expo float last year that Crouch had died, she burst into tears, he said.
Chief Deputy Chris Lane said he had just seen Crouch on Monday at the sheriff’s department when he walked by Lane’s office to say hello. Crouch was known for having a smile on his face and for his kind way of dealing with people, Lane said. That extended to personnel throughout the courthouse who knew him as a friend.
Lt. Tyler Stillabower, who had worked with Crouch in the jail corrections area for the past nine years, said he was accustomed to getting an email from Crouch at 11:30 a.m. each workday, asking, “You guys doing lunch?,” an email that didn’t come on Tuesday. Stillabower, Martoccia and Crouch were known to meet up nearly every day for lunch and had done so for the final time on Monday.
Stillabower said he was trying to sit in his office Tuesday and do his work, but it was difficult.
“It’s a total shock. I can’t believe it. He was the same Grover he was every day (on Monday). He was joking, laughing like he always was,” Stillabower said.
Crouch had planned to retire from the sheriff’s department after he had 10 years in, and then work on his own mowing business that he had just started, Stillabower said.
Crouch was formerly a reserve deputy for the Hope Police Department, he said.
“He cared about everybody, and if you needed help he was there,” Stillabower said. “He was always working to make the jail a better place. You couldn’t ask for a better person.”
A sheriff’s deputy stayed on guard at the hospital in honor of Crouch Monday night when he was taken there and a deputy stayed with the family on Tuesday to provide anything that was needed, Myers said.
Arrangements are pending at Barkes, Weaver & Glick Funeral Home in Columbus.
On social media, the department said officers were keeping the officer’s family in their thoughts and prayers.
“He was one of those people — even if you only met him once or twice, you would never forget him,” Stillabower said.
