AMHERST, Ohio — When it comes to being humble and present, 70-year-old Dianne Harris Mahar has it down to a T.
A mother to grown daughters Marci and Lindsey, mother-in-law to Mike Murphy, and grandma — or "G-Mom" — to Addison and Harper, she spends most of her time on her Amherst farm. The backyard looks like a children's dream: a pool, swing set, a sprawling acres-long yard. In the barn sits their longtime horse, Lacey.
"She's just a really lovable animal," Dianne said while feeding Lacey with Addison and Harper. "You're gonna smell like a horse!"
It's moments like these that are bittersweet. She wishes her beloved husband, Tim Mahar, was here to see it all.
"I just wish Tim was here to enjoy all this," she told us.
They were married for 35 years. Tim retired as a chief deputy from the Lorain County Sheriff’s Office before he passed from cancer in 2014. Dianne knows he's there with them, watching over.
"We always feel that he is," she added.
Dianne grew up on hard work and strong values, something her parents taught her growing up on the farm.
"My parents were amazing," she recalled. "I mean, my mom lived with me for the last, like, year and a half of her life. She just passed away in December. She was 100 1/2 years old. Helen Harris. She was phenomenal."
Yet, her parenting style differs from how she grew up.
"[My parents] never expressed, you know, 'I love you' or how they felt about us," she admitted, "and we always tried to make them proud."
And in 1977, she did just that: After a 16-week training program, Dianne became the first female trooper in the state of Ohio.
"I always say it was the best and worst experiences," she says all these years later.
Getting through grueling training, like boxing, earned the respect of her superiors, one in particular.
"He said, 'I admit, I was skeptical about women being in the patrol,'" Dianne recalled him saying. "He told like everyone in the class, you know, my peers ... He said that, you know, he would be proud to work with me any time and I could back him up at any time."
But Dianne didn't just make it through the training, though; she rewrote history. In the Ohio State Highway Patrol's 90-year existence, only once has the iconic badge changed.
When Dianne joined their ranks, "patrolman" was retired, and "trooper" took its place.
"All those years that I had to prove myself and I just accepted it," she says. "You just have to do it."
In April 2023, the Ohio Patrol's Training Academy in Columbus honored Dianne by dedicating a classroom in her name. Her speech was true to her character.
"I've always downplayed that I was the first female state trooper," she read aloud to us. "[I] figured if it hadn't been me, it would've been someone else."
After leaving the patrol, Dianne went on to become an Amherst police officer for 35 years and a security guard at Oberlin College for 30. We went with her earlier this summer when she went to visit old colleagues at Amherst PD.
Tearing up while talking to them, her gratitude was clear.
"Everyone who has come into my life has molded and shaped me," she said. "I always said it's not the badge that makes the person; it's the person that makes the badge."
She knows everyone here, yet so much has changed.
"I spent a lot a lot of hours in these," she said while climbing into a police car. It's time that she wouldn't trade for the world.
In fact, she embraced every challenge.
"Things were tough back in the '70s; they could have been a whole lot worse," she noted. "I didn't have a chip on my shoulder. I just wanted to do the work. I would stick my neck out for someone else before myself. It's the right thing to do."
In all this time of serving others, family was a priority, too.
"She doesn't realize how much she means to us," daughter Marci told her.
"Yeah. I think I do," Dianne said, before the family burst out laughing.
Marci continued, "Not just to us, but a lot of people."
Serving the public runs deep in her family. Mike is a detective for the Lorain Police Department, but Dianne worked with him at Amherst even before he started dating Marci. Both Marci and Lindsey work in criminal justice, too.
Dianne, the ever humble servant, is still uncomfortable with her legacy.
"Who would've known 47 years ago when I first got in law enforcement that I'd be where I am today?" she asked. "I wouldn't change anything at all."
For Dianne, it's much less complicated. She simply did it her way.
"I'm proud of anything that shows that it's part of us and hard work," she exclaimed. "And I'm proud of my kids, which I guess in a roundabout way makes me proud of myself."
