Harwood W. “Woody” Burritt, a former Marine Corps sergeant who went on to become the Baltimore Police Department’s deputy commissioner, died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease Feb. 1 at the University of Maryland Medical Center. The Otterbein resident was 78.

“Colonel Burritt was one of those iconic figures within the Police Department in the early part of my career,” said former Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III.

“He was one of my role models, a person you could look up to. He knew leadership and how to give the right amount of control to those who worked for him. His heart and soul was 1,000 percent in the Baltimore Police Department, too.”

Born in Utica, N.Y., and raised in Arbutus, he was the son of Harwood Raymond Burritt, an electrical engineer, and Marjorie Agnes Donovan.

He attended Catonsville High School and joined the Marine Corps at age 17. He earned his GED while in military service and served in Korea, Gaza and Japan. He left the Marines as a sergeant.

Members of his platoon called him “Reds” because of his auburn hair.

Mr. Burritt joined the Baltimore Police Department in 1960 and initially walked a beat in Pigtown. When he retired in 1992, he was deputy commissioner.

Over the years. he was involved in noteworthy cases. In 1974, as a Northeastern District captain, he took charge of an investigation of the fatal shooting of a woman during a purse snatching as she walked along Argonne Drive with her 10-year-old son, who witnessed her death.

In 1978, when he was commander of the Central District, he briefed reporters about the death of Officer Edgar J. Rumpf, who died while saving residents in the burning Beethoven apartments in Bolton Hill.

He was promoted to colonel and supervised 2,500 men and women officers as the department’s chief of patrol.

In July 1982, when President Ronald Reagan was scheduled to visit Baltimore, he was in charge of the city’s security plan.

A Baltimore Sun article at the time said, “At 4 p.m. yesterday, Colonel Burritt, a stocky, red-haired man whose soft voice belies the hectic pace and pressure of his job, sat back and drank a glass of lemonade after a 90-minute tour of the [president’s] scheduled and alternate routes, fixed and not-so-fixed stops.”

The article said he had ordered new aerial photos of the spot where President Reagan would land and of buildings along his motorcade route. The article called him a “good leader,” well suited to the task because he was “sharp and level-headed.”

He was awarded his department’s Bronze Star in 1962 for the arrest of a suspect charged with murder.

In 1981, he was given the award again after a suspect tried to fire six times at him.

The gun misfired.

Colleagues said he was known as “Colonel” and “Boss.” He also worked to bring information management and increased use of computers into the department. They said he was fascinated by technology. He was a shortwave radio operator.

“When he was chief of patrol, he had to inform the next of kin when an officer had been shot or killed,” said his wife, Connie Crabtree-Burritt.

“He took it to heart every time. This task never got easier for him.”

Mr. Burritt spent much of his free time sailing the Chesapeake Bay. His wife said he called boating his “basket weaving” — a stress reliver. She said over the years, he owned a succession of ever-larger boats. He once had 16-foot runabout named Slowpoke. His last was a 52-foot Hatteras yacht, the Rubiyat, which he used after retirement for three-hour dinner charters to Annapolis or the Key Bridge.

“He felt there was no more beautiful harbor than Baltimore’s,” his wife said. “As captain, I believe he married about half a dozen couples.”

He was also an animal fancier and had three golden retrievers, Major, Luke and Grace. “As with people, he was driven to help any critter he found in distress,” his wife said.

She quoted a favorite saying of his: “Heaven is the place where all the pets you ever loved come to greet you.”

A memorial service will be held at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday at Christ Lutheran Church, 701 S. Charles St.

Survivors include his wife of almost 26 years, a chef, caterer and former restaurant owner; a brother, Doug Burritt of Ellicott City; two sisters, sister Sally Mountcastle of Violetville and Nancy Daly of Pasadena; six nieces and nephews; and nine great-nieces and great-nephews.

jacques.kelly@baltsun.com