Some of the county’s top law enforcement agents will gather tonight to pay final respects to a onetime Brevard County sheriff’s investigator who worked many of the agency’s most infamous cases during the 1960s and 1970s.

Family members, former colleagues in the criminal justice field and friends will hold the 6 p.m. memorial service honoring Jerome “Jerry” Hudepohl at Beckman-Williamson Funeral Home in Cocoa Beach.

Hudepohl, 71, died on Feb. 11.

“He was certainly one of the best in Brevard County,” said former Brevard County Sheriff Jake Miller, who took office in 1978, two years before Hudepohl moved on to work as an investigator with the Medical Examiner’s Office.

“He had a reputation of being a very good investigator at a time when we didn’t have access to DNA evidence, forensics or blood spatter. He had to do a whole lot of old-fashioned police work,” Miller said.

Co-workers and friends described the pipe-smoking detective as quiet and unassuming.

Hudepohl, who joined the growing sheriff’s office in 1965, was also known for his grit and determination in solving cases that dealt with everything from murder to Chicago’s criminal underworld, friends said.

“I can recall a murder case where he dove in the Indian River and found a murder weapon on the first day of the trial,” said Brevard County State Attorney Norm Wolfinger, who worked on several cases as a new prosecutor during the 1970s with Hudepohl.

“He wouldn’t stop to solve a crime. He was a good friend and a good person,” Wolfinger said.

Hudepohl was a licensed private investigator at the time of his death, taking on cases involving suspicious deaths and other matters. He is survived by his wife Joan, daughter and two sons.