Vic Letonoff, renaissance man

Dewey Beach Police Patrolman Vic Letonoff is enjoying his ride – literally.

And, the ride has not been circuitous, which is fine for the renaissance man who has also been a sculptor, blacksmith, surfer, motorcyclist and, recently, a published author.

His father, the well-known painter Victor Letonoff, and his grandfather had both been Army officers. Letonoff attended the University of Maryland Munich, Germany campus which was established in 1950 for children of U.S. troops to attend.

The campus closed in 1992, and an alumni group formed to commemorate the college with a sculpture, which Letonoff designed and cast, depicting two leaning students. Letonoff said he used himself as a model for the stein-toting male student. The sculpture was unveiled in 1996.

After college, he spent years at the Johnson Atelier Technical Institute of Sculpture in New Jersey, learning the Seward Johnson method of the bronze art form, and even ran a blacksmith shop where he created decorative ironworks.

However, one day as he watched his young kids – now grown – run around their house in downtown Rehoboth, Letonoff faced the realization that making ends meet as an artist with a young family was tough. 

About the same time, he saw the then-Millsboro police chief being interviewed on TV in a push to recruit officers.

“I thought, I could do that,” Letonoff said. After growing up in a military family, he was accustomed to the disciplined way of living. He applied with the department the next day.

Making sculptures was a dark, dirty, grueling process; police work gave him the opportunity to interact with people.

He spent three years in Millsboro, then 18 years with the Rehoboth Beach Police Department, retiring in 2020. Retirement didn’t last, however.

Letonoff had surfed for years with Dewey Beach Police Sgt. Cliff Dempsey, and had known Lt. Billy Hocker since their days working together in Millsboro. Dempsey and Hocker talked him into taking a part-time position in Dewey, and he started two weeks after he retired.

“I like police work, I do,” he said. “I like the camaraderie, and I’ve made a lot of friends.”

The part-time position has kept him active while also allowing him to pursue other interests. As a young man, he surfed a lot and got back into it as he neared his 40th year.

“I wanted a surfboard for my birthday,” he smiled, noting fall has always been his favorite time to surf. “I wanted to take advantage of living at the beach. I worked on it, learned it, and I’ve made a lot of friends over the past 15 years. It’s a mellow sport unless you get into the big stuff.”

Motorcycles have always interested Letonoff, who said he got his first bike when he was 12. He’s always built custom motorcycles and custom parts, and didn’t let being hit by a car in the mid-1980s deter him. Letonoff recently fulfilled a long-held dream to tour the country on his motorcycle, and even joined a club.

“When you’re young, you either don’t have the time or money. I didn’t have both,” he said, grinning.

Lately, Letonoff has traveled to New York, Tampa, and the rolling hills of West Virginia and Kentucky.

“I didn’t know I could do it,” he said. “It lit a fire in me. I’m up for anything now.”

Letonoff seems to take inspiration from his father’s path.

“I’m just moving into another phase,” he said, noting one of his father’s paintings hung in the Naval Observatory when Joe Biden was vice president. “My dad became a noted painter after he retired. It was great because he found something else that interested him, and he attacked it with a lot of gusto.”

His daughter Gillian is a dancer at the Central Illinois Dance Company, and son Teddy is currently completing an electrician apprenticeship. His wife, the novelist and essayist Maribeth Fischer, founded the Rehoboth Beach Writers’ Guild, and Letonoff himself has recently enjoyed success with his own writing. 

In 2016, he received an individual artist fellowship from the Delaware Division of the Arts as an emerging artist in creative nonfiction. Over the past few years, Letonoff has published articles about his experiences as a police officer in Police 1, Delaware Today and Delaware Beach Life. 

He is currently seeking an agent for his book “Letters to a Young Cop.”

Letonoff acknowledged he has what he calls a “shelf life” as a police officer.

“I’m an old cop, I am,” he smiled. “I stay fit and active, but when I think I can’t do it anymore, I need to be honest with myself, but I’ll do it as long as I can.”