On Monday, former Auburn Police Chief Thomas Pisciotti passed away, after a tough fight against cancer. While most Auburnians may remember his trademark fedora or New York Yankees caps around the city when he was chief of detectives, his greatest legacy may be how he lived these last 10 years.

He joined the Auburn Police Department in 1967 as a patrolman, when many of America's cities were burning and law enforcement was degraded by many. Over nearly three decades he rose through the ranks, working to become a sergeant and chief investigator for then Cayuga County District Attorney Peter Corning. For many years he headed the detective bureau, eventually becoming Auburn's police chief for a short period in the mid-1990s, following Chief John Ecklund, who went on to a career training law enforcement officers in Haiti.

Soon after leaving the department in 1996, based on conversations with Ecklund, Pisciotti took on a new role, training, or more importantly, re-training police officers and law enforcement officials as part of a multi-national effort in the aftermath of the Yugoslavian civil war in Bosnia-Herzegovina to stabilize the region.

One of the facets of that work was to put in place law enforcement that used generally accepted practices. When Pisciotti went to the region, ethnic cleansing was not just a memory and torture was still often used. He headed an on-the-ground effort to not only train local law enforcement, but to weed out bad apples and improve procedures.

While such an assignment may sound glamorous, there were times that he had to worry for his life and watch his step. In his annual visits back to Auburn to see his family and to Florida to see his parents, he would relate the ongoing dangers in a region that, as we see in Iraq today, saw many attitudes toward life and death shaped on religious beliefs.

Last year, he was diagnosed with cancer.

While his work in Bosnia was a career highlight, the way he handled his terminal illness was an example of how to die with dignity and class. Instead of feeling sorry for himself, he tried to cheer others up, focusing on his three children and grandchildren. His youngest daughter, Michelle, was married last July and he made it a personal goal to walk her down the aisle, when many thought he would be using a wheelchair, if he could even attend the wedding. With a smile on his face he made it up and down stairs and made sure to dance with the bride on her day. His face did not show the pain of cancer, but a hope for the future - class at its finest and toughest.

Cosentino is a former mayor of Auburn and can be contacted at cozguytho@aol.com