Rowland Memorial Way: Tiny road a big tribute to fallen officer

PALMER — Wanda Rowland still gets choked up at times talking about her son, but lately it’s mostly gratitude that gives her pause.

“I was so humbled by all of that. I cried because I thought everybody forgot,” she said of a memorial service Palmer officials held last year at her son’s grave.

James Rowland Jr. was shot and killed in the line of duty as a Palmer police officer on May 15, 1999. This spring, almost by surprise, she received yet more proof that Palmer has not forgotten Rowland, the only officer to die serving the city.

The road that connects the parking lot of the new Carrs store to the parking lot of the old one, crossing the Palmer-Wasilla Highway in the process, now bears her son’s name. It’s been dubbed Rowland Memorial Way.

It might not seem like much, but Rowland and city officials agree it couldn’t be more appropriate. Officer Rowland died on that road responding to a report of a man who was slumped behind the wheel of a pickup. That man, Kim Cook, struggled with Officer Rowland and fired the shot that killed him. He is currently residing at a prison in Colorado and will remain behind bars until at least in his 80s.

Rowland said her son always wanted to be a police officer, but started his professional life as a firefighter and a medic. He was a disc jockey for a while in North Pole, then worked at Carrs in Palmer, where he provided police with a detailed report when a man stole from the store and threatened to kill the manager.

“One of the officers said to him, ‘boy you write a good report. … You ever think about becoming a cop?’” Rowland recalled.

After a stint as a military policeman with the Navy stationed in Hawaii, he came back to Alaska and signed on with the Palmer Police Department.

Rowland said city staff worked on getting the road named for her son but was cautious about getting her hopes up. She’d tried to have things named after her son before, most notably the youth detention facility in Palmer.

“He loved working with youth and actually wanted to be a youth minister,” she said.

Cmdr. Tom Remaley with the Palmer Police Department said he’d tried to get the Palmer-Wasilla Highway designated as a memorial to Rowland. He didn’t want to change the name since he knew that would disrupt business along the road, which would all have needed to change their addresses.

“I just want a blue sign on each end of it,” he recalls telling city officials at the time. But the plan didn’t work out.

Rowland said that for a few years after the shooting there was a small memorial next to the road that now bears her son’s name as it descends into the Carrs parking lot, but it was taken down. She still has it at her house. She was upset when she was told it had to be moved, but eventually came to terms with it.

“I do not need anything to remind me that right there was where my son’s blood was spilled,” she said.

Sandra Garley, director of community development for the city of Palmer, said that everyone who had to sign off on the deal — Carrs, the state, the city’s platting board — did so right away.

“This was a project that ,once everybody really understood the history, they were all for it,” Garley said.

When the idea came up, Garley said, she was one of those who got behind it without hesitation. She remembers the memorial that’s now at Rowland’s house.

“I didn’t work for the city of Palmer then, but I live in the Palmer area and I thought that it was so sad that they took that down,” Garley said.

Remaley has described the week of Rowland’s death as the worst in his career at the Palmer Police Department. There were long hours and sleepless nights, but also a tremendous sense of loss. It’s almost like losing a family member, an assessment Rowland would back up.

“The police departments out here are all so close. It’s like a family. When he was killed, our house was filled with everybody that worked with him, that graduated with him from the academy, or worked with him on the ambulance,” Rowland said.

That those family members haven’t forgotten her son makes her proud. With the road named for him, she said, she hopes more people will learn about him. She said she’s already talked to people about it, some of whom didn’t know the story. It’s given her a chance to share why that road is significant.

“That’s the most appropriate memorial that they could have made, I think. And I’m just so proud,” Rowland said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.