DETECTIVE DOUGLAS L. MAHNKE

BADGE 1100, ID 1582

SDPD 07/09/1971 - 01/20/1996

01/18/1946 - 01/21/1996

Deceased Name: Douglas L. Mahnke police detective, youth soccer coach 

Douglas L. Mahnke, a San Diego Police detective who coached youth soccer for 19 years, died of cancer Sunday at Mercy Hospital. He was 50.

Mr. Mahnke was diagnosed with cancer in February 1995, one month after running a half-marathon.

He continued to work and run after the cancer was detected, completing the America's Finest City Half-Marathon from Cabrillo National Monument to Balboa Park in August and serving until November as an investigator in the Police Department's Northern Division.

His girls soccer team, the Power Kicks of the American Youth Soccer Organization, raised $21,000 in 1991 to play in the Hawaiian Cup soccer tournament.

Mr. Mahnke took a personal interest in the lives of his athletes, Mira Mesa and Rancho Penasquitos residents 16 to 19 years old. 

"He would go into the homes of some of the wayward girls and work with the family, trying to restore relationships," said San Diego Police Department Sgt. Bob Snead.

Mr. Mahnke, a Mira Mesa resident, also coached junior varsity soccer at Mira Mesa High School. A native of San Diego, he graduated from Oceanside High School and San Diego Mesa College, where he received an associate degree in police science.

From 1967 to 1970, he served in the Army as a criminal investigator for the Military Police.

He joined the San Diego Police Department in July 1971 as a patrol officer. He became a detective in the Southeast Division in 1986 and was assigned to Northern Division the following year.

He is survived by his wife, Wendy; two daughters, Marci Mahnke and Kim Sawyer, both of Mira Mesa; his mother and stepfather, Beth and Jim Lamb, of Oceanside; a sister, Judy Harris, of Tustin; and two grandchildren.

Burial is at Eternal Mills Memorial Park, Oceanside.

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