Lieutenant
Louis Rougeau of the New Hampshire State Police had heard about a motorcycle
club for police officers and with the help of Troopers Roger Mailhiot and
Ward Freeman recruited 25 members in less than one month.
On
April 28, 1975, approximately one year after the Blue Knights were started
in Brewer, Maine, seventeen police officers met at the Bedford, New Hampshire
Police Department to elect officers for the newest chartered chapter.
Total Blue Knight membership at that time was 325 (including eight women)
with 18 chapters in 13 states/provinces.
New Hampshire I's first officers were:
President
Louis G. Rogeau New Hampshire State Police
Vice President Leo Morency
Bedford Police Dept.
Secretary
Ward Freeman New Hampshire
State Police
Treasurer
Robert Fournier Hudson Police Dept.
In
July, several of the members attended the first annual convention which
was held in Greenville, Maine. Among those attending were Roger and
Janine Mailhiot and Ken Forbes.
Ken, along with Ruben Gardner of KY-II, are the
only persons to have attended all 32 annual conventions.
Roger Mailhiot later served as International President.
NH-I has become well-known throughout the northeast for our Cornroast which is an annual event held in August. We have also hosted NorthEast Conferences.
During the ensuing years, two other chapters NH-II and NH-III were formed and became inactive. In 1997, several NH-I members who lived in the northern part of the state decided to form a new chapter, NH-IV, which was chartered in January 1998 and consists of former NH-I members and several new ones. We do participate in some joint activities with our old and new friends from NH-IV.
As of April 2007, New Hampshire Chapter One had
33 members.
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