A longtime Jefferson County sheriff and rancher Hamlin Preston Perkins died Saturday. He was 88.

Former Jefferson County commissioner and Madras mayor Rick Allen recalled the man best known as “Ham” as a throwback to an earlier time.

“Ham was sort of that old-school sheriff that people see on TV and movies — he rode a horse and was in the parades, and the six shooter on the side type of sheriff,” Allen said. “His handshake about broke your hand.”

Born in Portland, Perkins served in the Marine Corps during World War II. At the end of the war, he made his way to California to attend San Jose State College, then took his first job in law enforcement for the Laguna Beach Police Department.

Perkins came back to Oregon to run a dairy farm near Tumalo in 1953 and with his wife, Bernadine, settled into a life of farming and ranching.

In an interview with Perkins printed in the 2011 Jefferson County Fair guide, he recalled getting a haircut in Madras in early 1968 when his past police work came up in conversation with the barber. The barber recommended him to recently appointed Sheriff Ron Toms, and a short time later, he was hired on as a deputy. Controversy soon erupted in the Sheriff’s Office, and Toms decided not to run for re-election, clearing the way for Perkins to be elected sheriff that fall.

Perkins won re-election four times, serving until he stepped down at the end of 1986 to attend to family obligations.

Current Sheriff Jim Adkins was hired by Perkins near the end of his tenure, starting as a marine patrolman and moving to the jail a few months later. Adkins said he was never close with Perkins but remembered him as well-loved in the community.

“I was a young guy, only served with him for a year and a half there, and everybody liked him because he was just an easygoing, fair boss,” Adkins said.

Pat Neff served as Perkins’ assistant. Many who joined the department when he first took office were new to law enforcement, Neff said, and it was Perkins’ job to train them. Even after he got the department up and running, Perkins was as active as any deputy, she said, working in the jail, getting involved in car chases, and, on occasion, doing the jobs nobody else was willing to do.

“One time, there was a dog on the railroad tracks going over Willow Canyon in Madras, and that poor guy went out there and got that dog,” Neff said, recalling Perkins’ crippling fear of heights. “I don’t know how he got it, but he did.”

Neff said Perkins maintained close ties with the men he met through the Oregon State Sheriff’s Association, hosting an annual reunion for retired sheriffs at his ranch northeast of Madras every summer.

Michael Sullivan, the Jefferson County district attorney from 1977 through 1988 and now a judge on the Deschutes County Circuit Court, said Perkins was an advocate for professional conduct who insisted his deputies treat everyone with respect.

Perkins’ insistence on professionalism was tested when the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh moved into adjacent Wasco County in the early 1980s. Followers of the Indian guru were a common site in Madras in those days, Sullivan recalled, and were often unfriendly to law enforcement — but Perkins realized any confrontation between his deputies and the Rajneeshees would ultimately backfire.

“He was provoked, but he always responded in a calm and thoughtful manner,” Sullivan said. “Lots of people who worked on that situation did a great job, but he was one of those people that never got credit for being a calm and thoughtful person who always thought things through.”

Sullivan said Perkins often told a story from his time with the Marines, when he outwitted a Japanese soldier who came after him with a bayonet and managed to wrestle the weapon away. But beyond that one story, Perkins largely went out of his way to avoid calling attention to himself, Sullivan said.

“He was that quiet, nonassuming kind of fellow who was always there when you needed him, but didn’t say much,” he said. “Kind of your traditional, old-time sheriff who just did what he needed to do.”