As bagpipers played “Amazing Grace” and his radio call sign crackled over a police scanner for the last time, Edmonds Police Chief David Stern was bid farewell May 1 by the community he served for six years.

About 1,000 people filled Westgate Chapel in Edmonds on Tuesday to honor the 61-year-old chief who died suddenly April 25 from a brain aneurysm. He had served in law enforcement nearly 40 years, joining the Edmonds force in 2001, after his retirement from the Santa Maria, Calif., Police Department.

A highly principled man committed to his profession and devoted to his family was how Stern was remembered by colleagues and loved ones during the two-hour service. Chuckles outnumbered tears as speakers shared memories of a man given to bouts of giggling over a golfing buddy’s botched drive and a husband who relished a game of hiding an orphaned sock in places sure to embarrass his wife, Darlene.

The memorial service featured hundreds of uniformed law-enforcement officers, white-gloved honor guards and traditions such as a 21-bell salute. The Stern family’s vehicles were escorted to the church by a motorcade, with hundreds of people lining city streets waving a final farewell, and a riderless horse with boots backward in the stirrups.

Officers from as far away as Costa Mesa and Santa Maria, Calif., attended.

A private reception followed the memorial, which was paid for by contributions and donated services from Westgate Chapel, Beck’s Funeral Home, Sir Speedy printers and others. Friends of the family said David Stern’s body was cremated; no burial plans were announced.

Standing behind a tableau of memorabilia, including a Chicago Cubs banner and family photos, Edmonds Mayor Gary Haakenson recalled the man who he hired as his first director as a firm and consistent leader who “made his mark in Edmonds.”

The mayor said that before deplaning from a trip to California to interview him, he knew Stern was the one right for the Edmonds job. Stern, who was president of the Greater Edmonds Chamber of Commerce and president-elect of Edmonds Rotary among other civic and professional activities, was ” … everything I expected him to be and more,” Haakenson said.

Acting Police Chief Al Compaan said the hallmarks of the man who “always wanted to be called just ‘Dave’” were his honesty and integrity. He was a man who “always (took) the high road,” the assistant chief said.

Compaan recalled officers ribbing the man known as a sharp dresser about his ratty jogging outfit, including black socks “that contrasted with his white legs.” They once, Compaan added, pressed Stern for “what color of thong he had picked out for the beach” in anticipation of a trip to Hawaii.

David Stern’s devotion to his wife of 43 years was another facet of his personality shared by the speakers.

Compaan said the pair met on a blind date at age 16. When the Stern family moved from Chicago to California several months later, David Stern wrote to Darlene every day for two years, until his parents flew her to the West Coast, where the young couple were married.

Mountlake Terrace Police Chief Scott Smith told those gathered “even after 30 years of service, Dave still had a fire in his belly” when it came to serving Edmonds. Coming to the Northwest from California, Stern realized “how special the relationships” are among law-enforcement agencies in Snohomish County.

Smith said he would visit Stern in the chief’s office, with the ever-present classical music playing in the background, to chat or seek advice. “If he had a couch … I’d be laying on it paying him $125 an hour,” Smith quipped.

Family tributes were shared by Don Stern, who remembered his older brother saying he was going to be a police chief when he grew up. “He never asked for respect from anybody — he commanded it,” Don Stern said, noting that David was a “no fluff, no muss, no fuss” kind of guy.

His daughter, Dawn Eldridge, shared that her dad had high expectations for his children but led by example, too. She evoked tears from the audience with a childhood memory of a Christmas that looked bleak for the young family with a meager income. Her dad, Dawn Eldridge said, sold his prized gun collection to be able to afford the Christmas he wanted for his family.

Laughter erupted when she told of her father’s “burpter scale,” by which he rated burps at the dinner table based on “volume, length and clarity.” She also drew laughter with her father’s two reasons to stop the car on family vacations: it was out of gas or they had arrived at their destination.

Her brother, Darrin Stern, remembered his dad as a “by-the-book guy” who surprised his son by purchasing a new Class A police uniform and wearing it to the younger Stern’s graduation from a law-enforcement academy. Due to an injury, Darrin Stern is no longer in police work.

Recalling his parents’ devotion to one another, the chief’s son told those gathered “their love after 43 years was literally unbreakable.” Considering the cards, gifts and flowers his father continually showered on his wife, “you’d think Hallmark was paying him,” he added.

How David and Darlene Stern raised their children and what they taught them, the couple’s son said, “gives us all a map on how to recover” from losses, such as the death of a man like David Stern.