Shanon Dale Irwin, Centerville’s police chief since 2012, died March 19 at his home. He was 50 years old. He battled liver and pancreatic cancer since diagnosed in 2023. He continued his work until a few weeks before his death.
Chief Irwin served the town as an officer for 27 years, joining the force on the same day as the late Tim Buchanan, who became assistant chief on the same day that then-Mayor Bob Bohn appointed Irwin chief.
The spouse of Sydney Totty Irwin, whom he married in 1996, and the father of three, the Centerville native was a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and worked at Turney Center before joining the town’s police department. His priority was supporting the men he supervised and the town where they all worked. How well he did his job was evident
in February 2024, when a benefit raised $77,862 for the office and his family.
“It’s the support that my family has been shown from everybody,” Chief Irwin said that day. “I hope one day to repay it. . . . This community, there’s nothing like them.“
Fellow officers from across the region showed their affection again on March 22, creating a long line of flashing lights from Centerville Church of Christ, where his funeral took place, to Memory Gardens Cemetery, where Chief Irwin was laid to rest.
Chief Irwin was the son of Deborah Graves of Lyles and Elmer Irwin of Nashville. He also leaves his daughter, Hannah Irwin of Centerville; two sons, Cole Irwin of Smyrna and Wyatt Irwin of Centerville; his sister, Shelly Blyberg of Hazel Green, Alabama.
The family asks that memorials be made in his name to First Farmers Bank in Centerville.
