MSU police Officer Paul Schofield is hanging up his blue uniform after 30 years of policing to wear a suit and tie.

Schofield, 52, is joining the MSU Department of Police and Public Safety detective ranks on Dec. 2 for at least three years.

"It was the summer of 1968, and I had been here exactly 72 hours," he said. "The campus was just beautiful, and I thought if I could get any job at MSU, I would take it, just like that."

Schofield graduated from the police academy at Lansing Community College in 1972. He earned a bachelor's in social science in 1975 and later a master's in education at MSU.

When Schofield was about 25 years old, a murder at Olds Hall provoked his interest in detective work.

Schofield said he saw a woman lying on the floor with a small pool of blood around her head when he was the first officer to arrive at the scene. She had been shot.

In the midst of the crime, a man came to Schofield with a leather shoe he found by the door of the hall.

Schofield said he told the man to write down his information and give the shoe to a detective who had just arrived.

But the detective said he didn't want the old shoe, Schofield said. Instead, Schofield took information and the shoe from the man.

"In the end, it was the only evidence that linked her estranged husband to the murder," he said. "I would have liked to have completed that case."

MSU police Chief Jim Dunlap says Schofield's broad background will benefit the department.

"He just knows a lot," said Dunlap, explaining Schofield knows a network of police enforcement officials in Lansing, East Lansing and Meridian Township.

MSU police Inspector Bill Wardwell said he welcomes Schofield.

"He's going to be a tremendous asset to the unit," Wardwell said. "He will even help train some of us."