Services set for longtime city marshal

Merlin Price Sr., who passed away Sunday at age 78, spent over half his life in law enforcement, most notably serving as Morgan City’s first K-9 police officer and as a city marshal.
A service will be held at the Morgan City Municipal Auditorium from 9 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. Saturday. A Mass of Christian Burial will follow at Sacred Heart Catholic Church at noon.
Price joined the Morgan City Police Department in 1961 and in 1962 became Morgan City’s first K-9 police officer serving alongside a German shepherd named Bismarck. He got the dog from the Corps of Engineers in New Orleans.
Price was the first K-9 police officer in Louisiana outside of New Orleans, said his son, Raymond Price.
The police chief at the time, Edward Mungovan, wanted to “clean up Morgan City,” and the K-9 unit was designed to do that, Raymond Price said.
Police integrity was extremely important to Price, “and he never did anything for anybody to doubt his loyalty,” Raymond Price said.
Price and Bismarck worked together until 1969, when he retired Bismarck and made him the family pet. Bismarck is buried the city jail. Price traveled to London with fellow Morgan City police officer John Robertson to attend the K-9 training academy there, and returned from England with a new K-9 named Danny. Price also got to meet the queen while in England.
He worked with Danny until 1978, when he started working on road patrol. He retired from the police department in 1981 with the rank of sergeant. In 1987, he became city marshal and served as city marshal until he retired in 2008. While city marshal, he twice served as president of the Louisiana City Marshals Association.
Price also worked with state legislators to update laws that didn’t pertain to modern times, Raymond Price said.
New Iberia City Marshal Vic Delcambre, who has been marshal since 1979, was close friends with Price, and the two attended lots of meetings and conventions together over the years.
Even after Price’s retirement as city marshal, he stayed “very, very involved,” with the state marshal’s association, Delcambre said. Price made a flag that he kept updated with the names of all the association’s deceased members, Delcambre said.