Wilson Police Chief joins ECU Public Safety

(May 29, 2002)   —   Thomas Clarence (Tom) Younce, who served as chief of police in Wilson for 13 years, has joined the East Carolina University staff as Assistant Director for Public Safety. 

Before coming to Greenville, Younce had served eight months in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, working with the U. S. Justice Department in training managers and supervisors for Haiti’s newly-formed 5,000-member police force. 

Younce’s 27 years of law enforcement experience also include service as chief of police in Fuquay-Varina, as an agent with the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and as a uniformed patrol officer in the Washington, D.C., surburban community of Rockville, Md. He is also a retired captain in the U. S. Air Force. In his last tour of Air Force duty he was officer in charge of personal security details for the President and for various heads of state entering the nation’s capital through Andrews Air Force Base. 

A native of Florence, S. C., Younce holds a BS degree in education from Auburn University and a master’s degree in criminal justice from George Washington University. He has also done post graduate study in public administration at N. C. State University and completed training programs at UNC-Chapel Hill, Harvard University and the FBI Academy. He has been an adjunct faculty member at N. C. State, North Carolina Wesleyan College and Wilson Technical College and a guest lecturer at the N. C. Justice Academy and the North Carolina Institute of Government.

Younce is a member of several professional organizations and past president of two chapters of Rotary International. He is also a recipient of North Carolina’s highest award for civilian service to the state of North Carolina — admission to the Order of the Long Leaf Pine. Younce began his duties at ECU May 13. He and his wife Joyce, a senior elementary education major at ECU, are the parents of two children.