By Liz Alper

October 7, 2015 (San Diego) - Former San Diego County Sheriff Bill Kolender passed away of Alzheimer's disease on Tuesday.  He was 80 years old.  

Kolender served as San Diego's Chief of Police from 1976 to 1988.  In 1988, he retired and took a job as an assistant publisher at the San Diego Union Tribune.  In 1995, he came back to law enforcement as Sheriff of San Diego County.  He would be re-elected three times.

Kolender had been fighting Alzheimer's since retiring in 2009.