DULUTH — Beverly Ecklund, a woman who made an unprecedented ascent through the ranks of the Duluth Police Department, died March 10 — just two months after she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She was 73.
In a Facebook post, Police Chief Mike Tusken called Ecklund a pioneer who broke "glass and brass ceilings," both within the city and state. She was the first woman to earn the title of officer and to work patrol. She was also the first woman to make sergeant. In 1983, she was promoted again — likely becoming the first woman to be named police lieutenant in not just Duluth but also Minnesota, according to Tusken. It's a stat that appears on an index card in Ecklund's personnel file, written by then-Police Chief Eli Miletich, who was known for his precise record-keeping.
Angie Taran said her mother took her career in law enforcement very seriously. It took years, though, for she and her sister, Allie Collins, to recognize the groundbreaking moves Ecklund had made.
"As we got older, we started to realize how impactful she had been," Taran said. "She had a lot of firsts in her life with her career."
Ecklund graduated from the University of Minnesota Duluth in 1971 and started with the Duluth Police Department the following year. Her first title was policewoman — a role that had duties equal to the similarly titled men but for less pay and requiring a skirt and heels as part of the uniform, Tusken said.
In those days, some of the officers resisted having a woman as a partner in the field, recalled former Police Chief Scott Lyons. He didn't. He was paired with Ecklund briefly early in their careers, and when he was a detective, she was his boss. Lyons' male colleagues sometimes wondered aloud what their wives would think of them working closely with a woman, he said.
Ecklund had a rebuttal referencing a desert island that cut the conversation short.
"She was a strong lady with a huge sense of humor — huge," Taran said. "That was her thing. She did not take lip from anybody. She told it like it was."
