I last saw Carl Weisheit two years ago this month. He was wearing a dark suit, white shirt and a red, white and blue tie, surrounded by family and friends as he rested peacefully beneath a coffin lid adorned with a folded American flag and his military service medals.

All in all, it's not a bad way to remember my longtime friend, a wounded World War II veteran and retired police officer who was 82 when he died March 2, 2008. But now, thanks to the generosity of his former comrades in blue, Weisheit's contributions to the community will soon be memorialized in a much more life-affirming way – the kind of tribute he never sought, but richly deserves.

“We just wanted to do this for Carl. He was a fantastic guy,” said Lt. Matt Enyeart, director of the FWPD's training center located in the Public Safety Academy of Northeast Indiana, 7602 Patriot Crossing. As a firearms instructor, Enyeart is in a unique position to appreciate how truly appropriate it is to name the center's shooting range after Weisheit: It's a job Weisheit held for the last nine years of his life – the last four as a volunteer. An entire generation of Fort Wayne cops was taught how to shoot by a man whose war wounds could have claimed his life instead of just part of his voice.

The “Lt. Carl Wesiheit Range” will be dedicated in a special ceremony at 3 p.m. March 19.

Doris Weisheit, who was married to Carl for 62 years, said her late husband developed a love of firearms while serving in the Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps at Concordia Lutheran High School. That aptitude and training served him well in the Army, which sent him to fight the Nazis in France in 1944.

Shrapnel from an exploding shell caught Weisheit in the leg and throat, ending his war and leaving him with a distinctive gravelly voice for the rest of his life. But the wounds didn't prevent him from getting married, helping to raise a daughter and serving on the police force from 1951 to 1979, retiring as a lieutenant before returning later as an instructor and part-time desk sergeant.

Ironically, the department's tribute to Weisheit may never have happened had the Safety Academy's original business model not proved unrealistic. Director Bernie Beier said the academy had hoped to sell “naming rights” to specific sections of the facility. “When they designed the building, a price tag was attached to everything,” Beier said.

But when only a few sponsors were found (Parkview Hospital paid thousands for a classroom), the department was free to name the range after someone with less money – but perhaps a more legitimate claim to recognition.

“This is just a total shock. (The department) hasn't done this kind of thing before,” Doris said. “Carl was never one to put himself first. He didn't do thing to get recognition. He just did his job. He was a cop because he wanted to help people in his own way.”

As fellow members of Zion Lutheran Church in Fort Wayne, I knew Carl Weisheit from childhood. And, apart from that voice, I didn't realize there was anything noteworthy about him until much later, when I was old enough to recognize his military and civic service. For me, he was just another dedicated church member: there every Sunday, helping in any way he could, never making a big deal of his service.

In the same way, as a devout Lutheran, Carl would have been the first to acknowledge his own sins and shortcomings, and his need for God's undeserved grace and forgiveness.

I guess that's the point.

This town is filled with buildings honoring people for being rich, influential or otherwise perceived to be “great.” Weisheit was none of those things, and knew it. He was simply a good man who did his best to serve his God, country, city and family, often at great sacrifice, and continued to serve until God called him home.

Greatness has its place, but Fort Wayne couldn't function without its army of good people whose selfless efforts are seldom honored, or even noticed. Compared to what he did in life, a plaque on the wall and a name above the door don't seem like much. Still, it's nice to see Weisheit win one for all the anonymous good guys and gals still to be discovered.