Illinois State Police sergeant honors late father, serves with pride himself
By David Blanchette
The recent May 2 Illinois Police Officers Memorial Ceremony means something special for Keith Dorwart because the name of his late father, Morgan County Sheriff’s Deputy Craig Dorwart, is inscribed on the memorial at the State Capitol in Springfield.
“That memorial ceremony also holds a really high meaning to me because it’s not just my dad, it’s all of those officers throughout the history of Illinois who gave their lives in the line of duty,” Dorwart said. “We need to keep their memories alive, the impact their lives made in their communities.”
Dorwart is a law enforcement officer himself and serves with the Illinois State Police Major Crimes office in Springfield. Since 2019 he has also been part of a team that assists families in dealing with the line of duty deaths of their law enforcement spouses or children. Both his job and his volunteer service for law enforcement families feel like a calling for Dorwart.
“I’m not the guy that’s going to write 50 speeding tickets a day. That’s not who I am,” Dorwart said. “But the State Police have given me the opportunity where I can help people on their worst day.”
The 33-year-old Dorwart, who grew up in Waverly, hardly got to know his father before the April 5, 1994 accident on a snowy day that claimed his dad’s life. Still, one of his earliest childhood memories was the night that his family received the terrible news.
“I remember that something wasn’t right. My grandpa was there and a clergy member, and some other people who shouldn’t have been there at that time of night,” Dorwart said. “Later as a kid I knew that my dad was in a crash and it was snowing really bad, and my family has always stuck by the belief that the accident was nobody’s fault.”
Dorwart attended a summer camp in Missouri and then Wisconsin when he was in elementary school that was specifically for the children of officers killed in the line of duty. The camp allowed him to connect with other kids who were in a similar situation, and it helped Dorwart to understand the sacrifices that law enforcement families must be willing to make.
There was never any doubt that Dorwart would become a law enforcement officer himself when he grew up. Dorwart dressed as an undercover cop for Halloween one year, and Waverly Police Officer Larry Page and Morgan County Chief Deputy Kim Troyer were always around to encourage him. Both officers had worked with Craig Dorwart before he was killed.
Troyer introduced Keith Dorwart, then a freshman in high school, to the annual Cycle Across Illinois fundraising bicycle ride that was started in 2005 by the Concerns of Police Survivors (COPS). Dorwart joined the ride that year on the 30-mile leg from Jacksonville to Springfield.
“I got around those guys and they told me how important it was to see me doing the ride, that it motivated them,” Dorwart said. “They got to see where their hard work and money was going.”
“For me it was a way to connect to law enforcement on an emotional level, and the guys took care of me,” Dorwart said. “If we struggled with the wind we worked through it as a team. The law enforcement community took care of the law enforcement families. I have a whole community I can fall back on as a resource because my dad can’t be here for me.”
Dorwart graduated from Waverly High School and the University of Illinois, then did some internships with the Illinois State Police. He served as a Knoxville, Tennessee police officer for four years and returned to Illinois in 2017 to attend the State Police Academy in Springfield. Dorwart patrolled in the Joliet and then Chamgaign areas for the State Police before joining the investigations unit in the
Champaign area. In 2020 he transferred to the Major Crimes Office in Springfield and currently holds the rank of sergeant there.
“I can be a positive influence and interact with people in the community on a day to day basis, just like my dad did,” Dorwart said. “I grew up with what other people told me about my dad, about how his impact continues to have a lasting impression today. The importance of that cannot be overstated.”
One proud, and poignant, part of his career has been that Dorwart got to serve at one time with the Central Illinois Enforcement Group, the same drug-fighting unit that his father served with decades ago.
Dorwart now resides in Pawnee but frequently returns home to Waverly where he is greeted by the signs along Route 104 at the edge of town that read, “Deputy Craig A. Dorwart Memorial Highway.”
“This town and this community continue to honor him and those signs are a reminder of that,” Dorwart said. “We couldn’t ask for a better community. Their support has been huge.”
