John H. Ayers(1865-1943)

In 1897, Rome, NY native John H. Ayers was a public school teacher when he answered then New York City Commissioners of Police, Theodore Roosevelt's call for recruits with more brains than brawn. He began as a beat patrolman on New York's Lower Eastside and in 1902 was promoted to Roundsman (sergeant). Five years later he made Detective First-Grade and later that same year, through a realignment of police ranks, was raised to Lieutenant. In 1918 he was made Captain of the NYPD's new Missing Persons Bureau, a post he would hold for some fifteen years. During his tenure over 350,000 cases would be investigated of which only 2% remained unsolved. Ayers once admitted that he often let people feign amnesia if it helped ease their returning home. Ayers also held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army Reserve Corps. Anna, Ayers's first wife, died in 1937. She was the daughter of Irish immigrants and the mother of their only child. John H. Ayers died suddenly on 27 March, 1943, while at Brunswick, Georgia, He was seventy-five years old and was survived by his second wife Catherine and his son James.