How does a police department replace a beloved veteran like assistant chief Roger Fields?

"I don't think you do," Cape Girardeau city manager Scott Meyer said Monday. "... It's going to take multiple people to step into all the roles that Roger was able to play."

Fields, 50, died from "a complex medical condition," the department reported in a news release Sunday. He had been with the Cape Girardeau Police Department for 26 years.

Meyer said Fields was one of a kind, a "fun-loving guy" whose passion and dedication inspired others.

"It's the old adage: They broke the mold," Meyer said. "... Roger had that ability to take a group of people and make them better than the sum of their parts. People saw his passion for it and wanted to follow it and do it well for him."

Roger Fields

Darin Hickey, public information officer for the Cape Girardeau Police Department, echoed that sentiment.

"You don't replace him," Hickey said Monday. "You get somebody else to step up, but ... there is no replacing Roger Fields. He was one of a kind."

Fields joined the department in April 1988, eventually rising through the ranks to assistant chief in 2009.

"Roger was a people person, well-liked within the department, well-liked by friends, had a lot of friends, hard worker, very dedicated to the department, very dedicated to our city -- just a ... great loss to our department and a great loss to the citizens of our community," Cape Girardeau Mayor Harry Rediger said Monday.

After former chief Carl Kinnison retired in 2012, Fields served as interim chief -- a position he held for 10 months until the city hired Wes Blair as the new chief.

During that time, Fields implemented the Leads Online program to recover stolen property, set up the department's quick response team and helped step up alcohol enforcement, Meyer said.

"He certainly had the full weight of the office and did an outstanding job," he said.

Blair said Fields was among the first to welcome him to Cape Girardeau.

"Before we even moved here, he reached out to me and my family just to make sure we felt welcome in the community," Blair said Monday.

When Blair and his family arrived in town, Fields invited them over to his house for a barbecue, he said.

"That is a true caring gesture by a human being to make to somebody else," Blair said.

Fields' concern for others served him well, Blair said.

"I think his biggest strength was that he really, truly had a compassion for people," he said.

Hickey said officers from other departments have called to extend their condolences and offer support.

"Guys from lots of other agencies have reached out to us," he said. "It tells you what kind of guy he was."

Even in death, Fields -- who will have an honor guard at his funeral -- has united his colleagues, who were shocked by his loss, Hickey said.

"The department has really stepped up together and have come together really well, and guys are doing whatever we can to help the family out," he said.

According to an obituary from Ford and Sons Funeral Home, Fields is survived by his wife, Marsha, and sons Blake and Kyle.

Officers' concern for Fields' wife and children won't end with the funeral, Blair said.

"We'll always take care of them. That's part of the nature and culture of law enforcement. ... We'll always wrap our arms around them and take care of them," he said.

Hickey described Fields as "a fantastic people person" in a job that often depends on the ability to communicate effectively.

"People always talked about his sense of humor and his interactions with people. He always had a joke for you and always had a really quick wit," Hickey said. "This line of work, that's what you do -- you deal and talk with people."

Meyer also remembered Fields' often self-deprecating sense of humor.

"Everybody knows Roger as a fun-loving guy. He always had the ability to take a job that has a lot of drudgery and difficulty in it and make it as lighthearted as it could be," he said. "... He poked fun at himself to make it fun or easier for people he was around, and that's quite a trait that I saw a lot in him."

Rediger said Fields' can-do attitude and good humor set the tone for those around him.

"He always had a sense of humor and always had a smile on his face and created that atmosphere with those that he was around," he said.

Outside the department, Fields was involved in the community through his church and through not-for-profit organizations such as Safe House for Women, the United Way and the chamber of commerce, Meyer said, describing him as a "servant leader."

"It wasn't just his job -- it was the heartbeat of who he was," he said.

Visitation for Fields will be from 3 to 8 p.m. today at Connection Pointe Church, 1506 S. Farmington Road, Jackson. The funeral will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday at the church, with burial to follow at Memorial Park Cemetery in Cape Girardeau.

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