POLICE Magazine Founder Glenn Hare Dies at 68

Glenn "Bud" Hare, the former police officer and entrepreneur who invented a revolutionary leg splint and numerous other devices, started the country's largest emergency medical products company, distributed a massive catalog to help support the enterprise, and later launched POLICE magazine in the 1970s, died recently of complications following a heart attack. He was 68.

As a young San Diego police officer in the '60s, Mr. Hare shared ambulance-driving duties with fellow officers when a new medical response division in the department was created. Bothered by the suffering endured by some patients due to the lack of sophisticated equipment, he set out to create a leg splint designed to quickly immobilize the extremity while placing it in traction at the same time. Eventually calling it the "Hare Traction Splint," the device became an industry standard and since 1968, has been used in 100 countries.

He also invented such items as a blue square flare, a fog-detection device and was ahead of his time in designing a police pistol that if stripped from an officer by an assailant, could not be fired.

Mr. Hare's company -- founded in 1967 -- was started after his nearly 6-year tenure with the San Diego P.D. The firm was initially called Dyna but for the next 32 years, its name evolved nearly as aggressively as the company, eventually coming full circle to Dyna Corporation and employing 225 people. Over the years, the company produced a 300-page catalog of more than 3,500 emergency medical services products, published dozens of magazines including EMERGENCY and POLICE, and ran a printing division for its publications.

Mr. Hare took an active interest in both magazines and was pictured on POLICE's June 1991 cover with then President George Bush. Mr. Hare had been "invited to the White House to discuss the Crime Bill and the aftermath of the Rodney King incident," his wife Florence told POLICE.

EMERGENCY magazine was the first of the two titles started by Mr. Hare, with its inaugural edition rolling off the presses in 1969. It was followed 9 years later by POLICE. Both publications were sold to Bobit Publishing in December 1996 but EMERGENCY was closed in the summer of 1998. POLICE has maintained continuous monthly publication since 1978.

Mr. Hare is survived by his wife, Florence; a daughter, Leslie Leupold, of Vista, Calif.; a son, Dan, of Encinitas, Calif.; a brother, Bill, of Vista; and three grandchildren.